Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese is an anthology of the bizarre and unusual in scientific experimentation. It chronicles the absurd and dodgy as well as the ground breaking and ethically borderline experiments of recent history.
Over all an interesting selection and easy enough to read and pick up/put down at a moments notice as no one account is more than a few pages in length. What is very interesting though is how much intersection there is between this and other recent science and behaviour books I have read. Experiments feature in this book have crossed over with Freakonomics, SuperFreakonomics, Bad Science, Sway and other recent reads. One crossover reminded me of a very difficult book I was having trouble getting through that I must dig out and read as per this wee exercise (The Lucifer Effect: How Good People Turn Evil - Philip Zimbardo) which is an account of the stunning and scary Stanford Prison Experiment.
Experiments of note include the weight of the human soul (not 21 grams, dodgy experiment), using chips in the brain to make people violent or passive, the red wine/white wine taste test (the more you know about wine the worse you do) the two headed dog and many many more. Order now and get these free knives...
One note for prospective readers, Alex is not above a bad joke to close sections, terrible puns to make a point and has an annoying habit of writing fictionalized paragraphs to bring the following into personal focus. It's not necessary and slows down the reader.
Next: Unknown - need to choose one, I have plenty to pick from.
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