AoK 2 - Natural Sciences - Hey Tou

Reading the ‘Madness or Genius’ article, I was shocked and taken aback from some of the experiments that have been conducted. From this text, I suddenly realize that the natural sciences and the experiments involved in this area are not always what I expect it to be. Here, it seems like science is not always used in the most ‘proper’ way. Some of the experiments mentioned in the article are somewhat absurd and ridiculous. They do not include informed consent or anything about the safety or rights of the participants. More importantly, some of these experiments does not even seem to take into account of the subject’s (whether human or animal) well being during or after the experiment. This is obvious in the experiment of aircraft passengers where they were told they were about to die due to a car crash. Subjects could have had huge problems after participating in the experiment as they were exposed to such extreme circumstances. The consequences of such an experiment could have traumatized them to the extent that they may not even function as usual. I believe that there are definitely other ways to investigate and research about how extreme stress harms and affects cognitive ability. It seems that some scientists have taken ‘experimentation’ of ‘new’ theories or things to such a severe and excessive extent that the experimentation method is completely abused. What the scientists are trying to look for are not even that relevant to real life that it is just illogical to create such experiments.

I believe that the experiments mentioned in the article absolutely go against my understanding of natural sciences. I have always believed that natural sciences and the experiments conducted are ethical and reasonable. People concerned in the experiments should come first over the theory and experimentation itself. The safety of subjects is most important. However, as seen from the article, many of the experiments are pretty meaningless and worthless. Is it really that important to know whether laughing is an innate response to tickling? I was particularly surprised by the experiment on animal corpses placed on a seesaw to bring them back to life. Even though two of the animal did survive, the both still suffered from blindness and brain damage. Is it really worth to succeed in an experiment through the cost of physically handicapping the subjects? I personally think that these experiments are needless, and that they cannot be counted as experiments in the natural sciences area.