1 00:00:01,560 --> 00:00:04,760 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff from the Science Lab from how stuff 2 00:00:04,760 --> 00:00:16,160 Speaker 1: works dot com. Hey guys, and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:16,239 --> 00:00:18,480 Speaker 1: This is Alice Madam, the science editor from how stuff 4 00:00:18,480 --> 00:00:20,720 Speaker 1: works dot com. And this is Robert Lamb, signed writer 5 00:00:20,800 --> 00:00:22,959 Speaker 1: from how stuff works dot com. And we hope you 6 00:00:22,960 --> 00:00:25,240 Speaker 1: caught the first part of our series on world changing 7 00:00:25,280 --> 00:00:29,440 Speaker 1: experiments because it was world changing and exciting and mentioned 8 00:00:29,440 --> 00:00:32,400 Speaker 1: some good good stuff. And today we're going to continue 9 00:00:32,400 --> 00:00:35,440 Speaker 1: with a couple of more experiments changing the world once more, 10 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:38,680 Speaker 1: one experiment at a time. Yeah. So the first one 11 00:00:38,720 --> 00:00:42,559 Speaker 1: that we're talking about is primordial soup, which does not 12 00:00:42,680 --> 00:00:44,880 Speaker 1: come in a bowl. Though it did, it would probably 13 00:00:44,880 --> 00:00:49,839 Speaker 1: be pretty gross. Yeah, And here's why this boils down 14 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:53,239 Speaker 1: to the the theory that at one point there was 15 00:00:53,280 --> 00:00:57,120 Speaker 1: no life on Earth is pre biotic, okay, and you 16 00:00:57,240 --> 00:01:00,880 Speaker 1: just had the chemicals for life flowing around out there. 17 00:01:01,040 --> 00:01:05,000 Speaker 1: You know, you had especially proteins and nucleic acids and 18 00:01:05,040 --> 00:01:10,440 Speaker 1: these were formed, you know, early in Earth's primordial environment. Okay, Okay, 19 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:13,080 Speaker 1: So all the elements are there, right, it just needs 20 00:01:13,120 --> 00:01:16,959 Speaker 1: to be cooked. So the theory was that did something 21 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:20,280 Speaker 1: say like a strike of lightning or um or um 22 00:01:20,520 --> 00:01:23,119 Speaker 1: or radiation from the sun sort of you know, cooked 23 00:01:23,120 --> 00:01:25,639 Speaker 1: the thing and set the thing off, got everything rocking, 24 00:01:26,480 --> 00:01:29,360 Speaker 1: and you know that's the catalyst for life. Yeah, and 25 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:31,560 Speaker 1: a couple of guys, a couple of biochemists in particular 26 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:35,360 Speaker 1: John Haldane and Alexander Operan came up with this idea, 27 00:01:35,800 --> 00:01:38,760 Speaker 1: and what do you know, a few decades later in 28 00:01:38,800 --> 00:01:43,480 Speaker 1: n Harold Jury and Stanley Miller obliged and tested their hypothesis. 29 00:01:43,760 --> 00:01:45,760 Speaker 1: And of course, how do you test something like that, Well, 30 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:48,640 Speaker 1: you just have to make an artificial environment with the 31 00:01:48,880 --> 00:01:54,000 Speaker 1: with the same uh, you know, chemical properties. Right. Basically, 32 00:01:54,120 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: they were intent on recreating the early atmosphere of Earth 33 00:01:57,520 --> 00:02:01,240 Speaker 1: in carefully controlled, closed system. Does that blow your mind 34 00:02:01,280 --> 00:02:03,840 Speaker 1: for a second. You're creating the early atmosphere of Earth, 35 00:02:04,000 --> 00:02:06,320 Speaker 1: Like it sounds like it sounds like something from like 36 00:02:06,320 --> 00:02:08,840 Speaker 1: Outer Limits or Twilight Zone. It's like they've created like 37 00:02:08,919 --> 00:02:11,359 Speaker 1: the past in a in a in a little bubble, 38 00:02:11,400 --> 00:02:13,560 Speaker 1: and they're going to make life evolved and it's like 39 00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:15,880 Speaker 1: sand kings or something. You know, it's just so cool 40 00:02:15,919 --> 00:02:19,640 Speaker 1: and it's so simple. Right today, they had a warm 41 00:02:19,639 --> 00:02:23,160 Speaker 1: flask of water as the ocean. Yeah, the water vapor 42 00:02:23,600 --> 00:02:26,520 Speaker 1: rose up from the water collected in another chamber. Uh, 43 00:02:26,560 --> 00:02:30,400 Speaker 1: they introduced hydrogen, methane, ammonia. All this to stimulating oxygen 44 00:02:30,440 --> 00:02:33,640 Speaker 1: free and atmosphere, right, and then what do you know 45 00:02:33,680 --> 00:02:37,280 Speaker 1: if they discharge a couple of sparks, Yeah, representing lightning. 46 00:02:37,280 --> 00:02:38,960 Speaker 1: Of course, they had to wait for lightning to strike 47 00:02:39,040 --> 00:02:41,560 Speaker 1: the clock tower at the center of town. But then 48 00:02:41,560 --> 00:02:44,760 Speaker 1: they had that run to their experiment. No, no, no, no, no, no, 49 00:02:44,840 --> 00:02:48,600 Speaker 1: back to the future, reference spark. Just a few sparks. 50 00:02:48,639 --> 00:02:50,640 Speaker 1: Just charge a couple of sparks into the mixture of gases, 51 00:02:50,680 --> 00:02:53,919 Speaker 1: and finally the condenser cooled the gases into a liquid 52 00:02:53,960 --> 00:02:56,680 Speaker 1: they collected for analysis. And they opened it up and 53 00:02:56,720 --> 00:02:59,080 Speaker 1: there was a whole beaver in there. No, not not 54 00:02:59,120 --> 00:03:01,919 Speaker 1: a whole beaver, no, but but organic compounds, right, And 55 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:05,480 Speaker 1: that was very exciting, almost as exciting as a beaver. Yeah, 56 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:08,640 Speaker 1: the organic compounds were abundant in the cool liquid. What 57 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:11,160 Speaker 1: did you find in particular that excited Miller? A whole bunch. 58 00:03:11,880 --> 00:03:15,120 Speaker 1: In particular, they found amino acids, which are a vital 59 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:18,400 Speaker 1: component for life as we know it, right, so you're 60 00:03:18,440 --> 00:03:21,000 Speaker 1: a Miller concluded that organic molecules could form in an 61 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: oxygen free atmosphere and that the simplest of living things 62 00:03:24,639 --> 00:03:26,480 Speaker 1: might not be far behind. Yeah, there you go. That's 63 00:03:26,520 --> 00:03:30,040 Speaker 1: that's world changing. That's basically like the smoking gun, um, 64 00:03:30,080 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: you know, for evolution if you will. Yeah, it's excellent. 65 00:03:32,720 --> 00:03:37,760 Speaker 1: It's such a cool experiment. So let's talk about making light. Yeah, 66 00:03:37,800 --> 00:03:41,160 Speaker 1: this is really cool. Um. And it's not really making light, 67 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:45,680 Speaker 1: like measuring the more measuring light UM, kind of like 68 00:03:45,760 --> 00:03:48,240 Speaker 1: capturing light. It's kind of almost like, you know, I'm 69 00:03:48,240 --> 00:03:51,880 Speaker 1: gonna grab grab a beam of light and like force 70 00:03:51,960 --> 00:03:53,760 Speaker 1: it to run a whole bunch of laps, and I'm 71 00:03:53,800 --> 00:03:56,280 Speaker 1: going to watch it, measure what it's doing, and by 72 00:03:56,320 --> 00:04:00,400 Speaker 1: measuring it, figure out exactly how fast it's going. So 73 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:03,960 Speaker 1: the light was still a mystery back when the nineteenth 74 00:04:03,960 --> 00:04:07,200 Speaker 1: century dawned, and it inspired a couple of fascinating experiments, 75 00:04:07,280 --> 00:04:10,080 Speaker 1: most notably Thomas Young's double slit experiment. But the one 76 00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,440 Speaker 1: that we're going to talk about I had to do 77 00:04:12,560 --> 00:04:16,480 Speaker 1: with a gentleman by the name of A. Michaelson, a physicist, 78 00:04:16,839 --> 00:04:21,080 Speaker 1: a physics instructor who in seventy eight devised an experiment 79 00:04:21,240 --> 00:04:24,360 Speaker 1: to calculate the speed lay. Yeah. I love this. I mean, 80 00:04:24,400 --> 00:04:27,920 Speaker 1: can you not this is so cool any kind of 81 00:04:27,960 --> 00:04:30,400 Speaker 1: a big experiment. It's kind of cool, yeah, and it 82 00:04:30,520 --> 00:04:35,160 Speaker 1: but it's also it's big. But it also was fairly simple, 83 00:04:35,200 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: and I think he made it with materials that cost 84 00:04:36,960 --> 00:04:39,880 Speaker 1: less and ten dollars. I don't know what the equivalent 85 00:04:40,000 --> 00:04:42,159 Speaker 1: amount would be back then, but he made it pretty cheaply. 86 00:04:43,279 --> 00:04:45,800 Speaker 1: And what Michaelson did was he proved that light was 87 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:50,960 Speaker 1: a finite measurable quantity. Quantity. Yeah, He basically set up 88 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:55,080 Speaker 1: a couple of mirrors um about in a mile long tube, 89 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,320 Speaker 1: all right, so that the light hit one of these 90 00:04:58,360 --> 00:05:02,640 Speaker 1: mirrors and then then reflected towards the other mirror, and 91 00:05:02,680 --> 00:05:07,159 Speaker 1: this mirror was was rotating. When the speed was correctly adjusted, 92 00:05:07,240 --> 00:05:10,160 Speaker 1: light reflected from the rotating mirror struck a mirror that 93 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:12,200 Speaker 1: was in the fixed position, and a return to strike 94 00:05:12,279 --> 00:05:14,440 Speaker 1: the next phase on the spinning mirror. So do you 95 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:16,680 Speaker 1: do you have a picture of that. You have light 96 00:05:16,760 --> 00:05:18,960 Speaker 1: streaking the rotating mirror, then it's going back to the 97 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:21,000 Speaker 1: fixed mirror, and then it's going back again to the 98 00:05:21,080 --> 00:05:23,600 Speaker 1: rotating mirror, right, And he had an observation screen set 99 00:05:23,680 --> 00:05:26,599 Speaker 1: up as well, so he could you could measure these things. 100 00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:29,520 Speaker 1: So According to the University of Chicago, they did a 101 00:05:29,560 --> 00:05:31,479 Speaker 1: little right up on this experiment. The time needed for 102 00:05:31,480 --> 00:05:34,600 Speaker 1: the next phase to rotate into position to reflect the 103 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:37,039 Speaker 1: light was the time required for the light to travel 104 00:05:38,040 --> 00:05:41,200 Speaker 1: the known distance to the station is the stationary mirror. Basically, 105 00:05:41,240 --> 00:05:45,280 Speaker 1: if you know how fast the rotating mirrors are rotating, 106 00:05:45,440 --> 00:05:47,760 Speaker 1: and you know the distance between those two sets of mirrors, 107 00:05:47,880 --> 00:05:50,080 Speaker 1: then you can figure out the speed of light. Yeah. 108 00:05:50,320 --> 00:05:52,720 Speaker 1: He sat, he set up the situation where math could 109 00:05:52,920 --> 00:05:56,359 Speaker 1: could calculate it, and he basically came really close. Is 110 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,840 Speaker 1: that recall. Yeah, he came in in two hundred miles 111 00:05:59,320 --> 00:06:03,480 Speaker 1: of the actual value. Yeah. So more important, scientists had 112 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:05,920 Speaker 1: a better picture of light and a foundation upon which 113 00:06:05,960 --> 00:06:09,720 Speaker 1: to build the theories of quantum mechanics and relativity. Yeah, 114 00:06:09,800 --> 00:06:13,240 Speaker 1: with the speed of light. Without understanding the speed of light, 115 00:06:13,240 --> 00:06:15,280 Speaker 1: there are so many theories about the universe. We wouldn't 116 00:06:15,320 --> 00:06:18,240 Speaker 1: have listen to any of our podcasts to deal with 117 00:06:18,520 --> 00:06:22,039 Speaker 1: space and you know, in big cosmological issues, and speed 118 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:23,520 Speaker 1: of light has a way of coming up a lot. 119 00:06:23,600 --> 00:06:29,160 Speaker 1: It does, and so does radiation, which our next experiment 120 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:31,720 Speaker 1: is concerned with. Correct. Yeah, let's add to France. Let's 121 00:06:31,720 --> 00:06:35,640 Speaker 1: head to uh the curies. So the year was a 122 00:06:35,640 --> 00:06:39,599 Speaker 1: pretty momentous one for Marie. Curie should a first child 123 00:06:39,880 --> 00:06:43,240 Speaker 1: with her husband Pierre, also a non scientist, and a 124 00:06:43,240 --> 00:06:45,599 Speaker 1: few weeks later she went looking for a subject for 125 00:06:45,640 --> 00:06:49,320 Speaker 1: her doctoral thesis and what she settled on was uranium rays, 126 00:06:49,360 --> 00:06:53,200 Speaker 1: which were first described by Henri Becarel. And so Becarel 127 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:56,440 Speaker 1: had discovered that these rays accidentally because he left uranium 128 00:06:56,440 --> 00:06:58,440 Speaker 1: salts in a dark room and when he came back 129 00:06:58,680 --> 00:07:01,080 Speaker 1: he found that they had exposed a photographic plate. I 130 00:07:01,120 --> 00:07:03,760 Speaker 1: love that story. So like simple and accidental, you know, 131 00:07:04,680 --> 00:07:07,760 Speaker 1: and he's just leaving uranium lying around the house. That's always. 132 00:07:07,800 --> 00:07:11,800 Speaker 1: That's good. So Marie chose to study these mysterious rays, 133 00:07:11,840 --> 00:07:13,640 Speaker 1: and she wanted to see if there are other elements 134 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:17,280 Speaker 1: that gave off similar emissions. And she found them. Yeah, 135 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:23,160 Speaker 1: she um, she discovered polonium would she name would just 136 00:07:23,240 --> 00:07:28,280 Speaker 1: named for poland her homeland. And then she also discovered radium. 137 00:07:28,320 --> 00:07:30,679 Speaker 1: So there's a pretty end. And and also she really 138 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,480 Speaker 1: narrowed down that you had radioactive compounds, but it wasn't 139 00:07:33,480 --> 00:07:35,600 Speaker 1: the compound that was radioactive, it was an element in 140 00:07:35,640 --> 00:07:39,040 Speaker 1: the compound. And so curity when to Nobel presses for 141 00:07:39,080 --> 00:07:43,880 Speaker 1: her work. Quite a gal, quite a scientist. But let's 142 00:07:43,880 --> 00:07:47,000 Speaker 1: talk about dogs. This is I think it's more exciting, 143 00:07:47,920 --> 00:07:50,200 Speaker 1: and I think everyone's more or less familiar with this one, 144 00:07:50,200 --> 00:07:55,640 Speaker 1: if not the actual experiment. Wasn't that cartion about Pavlov 145 00:07:56,280 --> 00:07:58,720 Speaker 1: like a like the likes of Scooby Doo or something, 146 00:07:59,520 --> 00:08:02,840 Speaker 1: no cartoon that ran into Sunday newspaper? Yeah, like a Marmaduke, 147 00:08:03,480 --> 00:08:06,200 Speaker 1: A Marmaduke. Um, you know there's going to be a 148 00:08:06,240 --> 00:08:08,800 Speaker 1: Marmaduke movie by that. I saw this crazy because I 149 00:08:09,160 --> 00:08:12,480 Speaker 1: love the idea of Marmadude because it's like it's not 150 00:08:12,520 --> 00:08:15,040 Speaker 1: really funny and like every but everyone is the same. 151 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:17,840 Speaker 1: It's like like, oh my god, goodness, the dogs so big. 152 00:08:17,880 --> 00:08:19,920 Speaker 1: Look how huge that dog is. And it's like the 153 00:08:19,960 --> 00:08:22,200 Speaker 1: same thing every time, and it's it's kind of it's 154 00:08:22,240 --> 00:08:24,840 Speaker 1: so bad, it's awesome, you know. Yeah. It reminds me 155 00:08:24,880 --> 00:08:27,880 Speaker 1: a family circus where, um, did you ever read Family 156 00:08:27,960 --> 00:08:29,960 Speaker 1: circus movies before your time? I used to read the 157 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:32,840 Speaker 1: comics and there was that one comic that the whole 158 00:08:32,920 --> 00:08:35,720 Speaker 1: joke was the child was asking what was for dinner 159 00:08:35,760 --> 00:08:39,199 Speaker 1: and said pisketti and meatballs. That was it. That was 160 00:08:39,240 --> 00:08:42,440 Speaker 1: the joke pisketti and meat balls. Then he like just 161 00:08:42,520 --> 00:08:45,559 Speaker 1: specifically or he like milk that joke. For like twenty years, 162 00:08:45,600 --> 00:08:48,360 Speaker 1: like something. That cartoon was pretty popular. I think I 163 00:08:48,440 --> 00:08:52,920 Speaker 1: might even seen it posted up at my dentist's office. Yeah. So, anyway, 164 00:08:52,960 --> 00:08:55,520 Speaker 1: back to Pavlov of the Russian born physiologist and chemist 165 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:59,880 Speaker 1: responsible for the salivating dog's experiment. So Pavlov it all 166 00:09:00,000 --> 00:09:03,959 Speaker 1: already noted that the stomach won't start digesting without salivation 167 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:08,040 Speaker 1: occurring first, right, He wasn't actually interested in psychology behavior. 168 00:09:08,200 --> 00:09:14,600 Speaker 1: He was interested in the bodily functions, digestion and blood circulation. Yeah. So, 169 00:09:14,920 --> 00:09:19,719 Speaker 1: but the experiment itself involved feeding dogs and like having 170 00:09:19,760 --> 00:09:21,840 Speaker 1: a whole bunch of flashing lights and noises going on 171 00:09:21,960 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: at the same time. And then you feed them without 172 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,640 Speaker 1: those noises or the lights, et cetera. But then you 173 00:09:28,720 --> 00:09:32,400 Speaker 1: don't feed them that hit the lights and they start salivating. Anyway, 174 00:09:33,280 --> 00:09:36,040 Speaker 1: a conditioned reflex. Yeah, it's so. It's it's like, you know, 175 00:09:36,080 --> 00:09:39,920 Speaker 1: you hear people talking about a something having a Paplovian effect. 176 00:09:40,280 --> 00:09:42,240 Speaker 1: It's kind of like I have a certain ring tone 177 00:09:42,360 --> 00:09:45,080 Speaker 1: that goes up in the morning that wakes me up 178 00:09:45,720 --> 00:09:48,520 Speaker 1: and so there's like a response it's like, oh goodness, 179 00:09:48,559 --> 00:09:49,880 Speaker 1: I have to get out of bed. So if you're 180 00:09:49,880 --> 00:09:51,880 Speaker 1: ready to hear that ring tone it other times, yeah, 181 00:09:51,920 --> 00:09:54,959 Speaker 1: I hear like occasionally office will have that ring tone 182 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:56,720 Speaker 1: go off and yeah, my heart jumps and I'm like, 183 00:09:56,720 --> 00:09:59,360 Speaker 1: oh my goodness, I just dreamed half my day and 184 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:02,559 Speaker 1: I'm not really out of bed yet. Well. The interesting 185 00:10:02,600 --> 00:10:05,119 Speaker 1: thing that Pablo found was that this type of reflex, 186 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:06,880 Speaker 1: like you're running for the shower when you hear that 187 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,920 Speaker 1: ring tone, um, it dies out if the stimulus is 188 00:10:09,960 --> 00:10:11,760 Speaker 1: wrong too often. So if you hear it in the 189 00:10:11,800 --> 00:10:14,160 Speaker 1: office too much, then you're not You're not going to 190 00:10:14,240 --> 00:10:16,600 Speaker 1: have that urge. So so yeah, if you So, if 191 00:10:16,600 --> 00:10:19,040 Speaker 1: he pulled this on the dogs too much, they'd be like, hey, 192 00:10:19,240 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: I don't actually get fed every time you sound an 193 00:10:22,120 --> 00:10:25,960 Speaker 1: air horn. Yeah, the canon's got smart and Pablo published 194 00:10:25,960 --> 00:10:28,400 Speaker 1: his results in A year later, he won a Nobel 195 00:10:28,440 --> 00:10:31,120 Speaker 1: Prize in medicine, but it wasn't for his work with conditioning, 196 00:10:31,440 --> 00:10:34,280 Speaker 1: but rather in recognition of his work on the physiology 197 00:10:34,280 --> 00:10:37,000 Speaker 1: of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the 198 00:10:37,040 --> 00:10:40,440 Speaker 1: subject has been transformed and enlarged. That comes to you 199 00:10:40,679 --> 00:10:43,120 Speaker 1: compliments of the Nobel Prize dot org site, which is 200 00:10:43,160 --> 00:10:45,360 Speaker 1: such an awesome site. Have you been to the Nobel 201 00:10:45,400 --> 00:10:48,160 Speaker 1: Prize I have. It's pretty cool. It just contains a 202 00:10:48,200 --> 00:10:51,680 Speaker 1: wealth of information. I just love it. The other great 203 00:10:51,679 --> 00:10:54,560 Speaker 1: thing about this experiment is that, aside from maybe being 204 00:10:54,640 --> 00:10:56,600 Speaker 1: old freaked up on the noise, like, nobody was like 205 00:10:56,679 --> 00:10:59,080 Speaker 1: mean to a dog or or any kind of an animal. 206 00:10:59,240 --> 00:11:01,000 Speaker 1: You know, I mean not only mean, you know, just 207 00:11:01,040 --> 00:11:03,360 Speaker 1: kind of messing with them a little, but no more 208 00:11:03,360 --> 00:11:07,320 Speaker 1: than your average dog under my vivisection. Yeah, like so 209 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:09,320 Speaker 1: many of these animal experiments, it's like even if for 210 00:11:09,440 --> 00:11:11,680 Speaker 1: if it's for a good cause, it's like you're like, oh, man, 211 00:11:11,840 --> 00:11:16,120 Speaker 1: you're gonna blast another chimp into space. That's great. So really, 212 00:11:16,120 --> 00:11:20,400 Speaker 1: he didn't do anything. He didn't engage in any animal cruelty. 213 00:11:20,480 --> 00:11:22,800 Speaker 1: I I don't know, or well, the experiment itself is 214 00:11:22,840 --> 00:11:26,000 Speaker 1: what I'm The experiment itself is not overtly based in 215 00:11:26,080 --> 00:11:30,840 Speaker 1: animal cruelty, as some experiments definitely are, right, I guess 216 00:11:30,840 --> 00:11:34,880 Speaker 1: it depends on your definition of animal cruelty. But oh, 217 00:11:34,960 --> 00:11:38,560 Speaker 1: there's some experiments definitely animal cruelty. Well, somebody classified this 218 00:11:38,600 --> 00:11:41,160 Speaker 1: one else. Well, but it's a far cry from say, 219 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:43,480 Speaker 1: cutting a dog's head off and then trying to sew 220 00:11:43,520 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: another dog's head onto the stump. That's a little Butchers 221 00:11:48,120 --> 00:11:50,880 Speaker 1: in my mind, there is a disparity between the two. 222 00:11:51,080 --> 00:11:53,480 Speaker 1: So let's talk about authority figures. Yeah, let's move on 223 00:11:53,480 --> 00:11:56,480 Speaker 1: to more human cruelty, because that's what this this experiment 224 00:11:56,520 --> 00:11:59,720 Speaker 1: centers around. And Stanley Milgram was a pretty famous experiment 225 00:11:59,760 --> 00:12:02,720 Speaker 1: and sure you guys have heard of it. Yeah, his 226 00:12:02,800 --> 00:12:06,640 Speaker 1: nineteen sixties obedience experiments, and they're some of the most 227 00:12:06,640 --> 00:12:11,920 Speaker 1: famous and controversial science experiments. So what did Milgram do? Yeah, 228 00:12:11,920 --> 00:12:14,960 Speaker 1: so basically, you know, he's sitting around his laboratory and 229 00:12:15,000 --> 00:12:17,200 Speaker 1: he was thinking, you know, you know what I would 230 00:12:17,200 --> 00:12:19,840 Speaker 1: like to do. I would like to to know how 231 00:12:19,920 --> 00:12:23,640 Speaker 1: far ordinary people will go in delivering painful electric shocks 232 00:12:23,679 --> 00:12:27,400 Speaker 1: to a friend or just your peer, when commanded to 233 00:12:27,520 --> 00:12:30,920 Speaker 1: by a scientific authority. Can you imagine that's his laboratory thought, 234 00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:35,199 Speaker 1: just sitting there, musing upon the newspapers headlines, and then 235 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:38,240 Speaker 1: he thoughts wander over too, Yeah, or he has like 236 00:12:38,280 --> 00:12:40,440 Speaker 1: a lab assistant and he's like, how far would this 237 00:12:40,480 --> 00:12:42,200 Speaker 1: idiot go if I just told him to do it? 238 00:12:42,840 --> 00:12:45,920 Speaker 1: And Uh, as we find out pretty far. Yeah, it's 239 00:12:45,960 --> 00:12:50,080 Speaker 1: kind of disturbing, right. So this is his experiment. Milgram 240 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:54,200 Speaker 1: recreated a couple of volunteers just ordinary to deliver the shocks. 241 00:12:54,559 --> 00:12:57,400 Speaker 1: You created the actors to be the subjects who had 242 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:00,520 Speaker 1: received the shocks. So there's no actual shocking, no actual 243 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,520 Speaker 1: shocking going on. They're just pretending to be shocked. And 244 00:13:03,559 --> 00:13:06,200 Speaker 1: but the people that are employing the shock don't know it. 245 00:13:06,360 --> 00:13:10,400 Speaker 1: Can't pretend I just gave you a shock, Okay, I 246 00:13:10,480 --> 00:13:14,120 Speaker 1: just I just amph why jerryus listening in the headphones. 247 00:13:14,160 --> 00:13:16,640 Speaker 1: If I scream into the headphone, I mean into the mic, 248 00:13:16,720 --> 00:13:20,360 Speaker 1: she's gonna at right. So you have your actors, you 249 00:13:20,360 --> 00:13:22,240 Speaker 1: have your ordinary residence, and then you have an authority 250 00:13:22,240 --> 00:13:24,160 Speaker 1: figure of scientists who would remain in the room for 251 00:13:24,160 --> 00:13:28,640 Speaker 1: the study station. And the authority figure was the one 252 00:13:28,679 --> 00:13:31,520 Speaker 1: who began each experiment. They showed the volunteers how to 253 00:13:31,640 --> 00:13:34,439 Speaker 1: use the mock shock machine. That's a kid name the 254 00:13:34,480 --> 00:13:38,120 Speaker 1: mock shock machine. The machine allowed the volunteers to deliver 255 00:13:38,200 --> 00:13:41,920 Speaker 1: up to four, which was a shock light labeled as 256 00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:46,439 Speaker 1: highly dangerous. What happened next? So next the scientist told 257 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,240 Speaker 1: the volunteers that they were testing to see how shocks 258 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:54,160 Speaker 1: might improve word association recall, which I don't know why 259 00:13:54,160 --> 00:13:56,400 Speaker 1: they fell for that, because it it was kind of like, oh, man, 260 00:13:56,480 --> 00:13:59,640 Speaker 1: I stuck my finger in that lightstock, and I totally 261 00:13:59,679 --> 00:14:03,120 Speaker 1: better with my vocabulary. Um. So I instructed the volunteers 262 00:14:03,120 --> 00:14:06,960 Speaker 1: to shock the learners, who again were actors for wrong answers, 263 00:14:07,000 --> 00:14:10,680 Speaker 1: and raise the voltage as the experiment progressed. Man. Yeah, 264 00:14:11,679 --> 00:14:13,920 Speaker 1: and so the learners cried out whenever they received a shock, 265 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:16,520 Speaker 1: and at about a hundred fifty volts they would demand 266 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:21,560 Speaker 1: to be freed. Well, the scientists, the authority figure encourage 267 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,640 Speaker 1: volunteers to continue delivering the shocks, no matter how agitated 268 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:27,880 Speaker 1: the learners became. Yeah, some of the volunteers stopped at 269 00:14:27,880 --> 00:14:30,880 Speaker 1: about a hundred and fifty volts, but most kept going 270 00:14:30,960 --> 00:14:33,360 Speaker 1: until they reach a maximum shock level of a four 271 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,280 Speaker 1: hundred and fifty. It's crazy, It is crazy. So yeah, 272 00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:41,080 Speaker 1: the the the the lesson here then is that if 273 00:14:41,120 --> 00:14:44,720 Speaker 1: a scientific authority figure tell somebody to do something, uh, 274 00:14:44,800 --> 00:14:49,520 Speaker 1: you can really push them pretty far, you know. Yeah, yeah, 275 00:14:49,600 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 1: the power of authority most definitely a lot of people 276 00:14:52,280 --> 00:14:54,720 Speaker 1: later called into question the ethics of the experiment, as 277 00:14:54,760 --> 00:14:58,880 Speaker 1: you might guess, but the results were really fascinating. Yeah. 278 00:14:59,320 --> 00:15:01,240 Speaker 1: I mean it's often a were shadowed by by some 279 00:15:01,280 --> 00:15:06,160 Speaker 1: of the crueler psychological experiments like the Stanford prison experiment. 280 00:15:06,360 --> 00:15:08,600 Speaker 1: Definitely think about the Stanford prison experiment. Didn't they have 281 00:15:08,640 --> 00:15:12,400 Speaker 1: to call that one off early? I forget how that went. Yeah, 282 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,800 Speaker 1: So we have a ton of really good experiment articles 283 00:15:15,920 --> 00:15:17,440 Speaker 1: on the site if you want to check them out. 284 00:15:17,480 --> 00:15:22,200 Speaker 1: On the home page. We have how human experimentation works. 285 00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:24,320 Speaker 1: That's a pretty good one. Yeah, we have five crazy 286 00:15:24,360 --> 00:15:26,600 Speaker 1: government experience and we also have this one that Bill 287 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,000 Speaker 1: Harris wrote on ten science Experiments to Change the World. 288 00:15:29,400 --> 00:15:31,720 Speaker 1: And if you want to hear about even more experiments, 289 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,920 Speaker 1: do check out our blogs because we're always covering experiments 290 00:15:35,960 --> 00:15:39,840 Speaker 1: there because they're constantly doing something fascinating out there in 291 00:15:39,840 --> 00:15:42,360 Speaker 1: the world of science. And uh and we'd like to 292 00:15:42,400 --> 00:15:44,880 Speaker 1: cover the really snazzy ones. Yeah, and a lot of 293 00:15:44,880 --> 00:15:47,480 Speaker 1: times we'll cover them on Twitter or Facebook as well 294 00:15:47,560 --> 00:15:49,240 Speaker 1: if we don't get around to posting on them or 295 00:15:49,280 --> 00:15:51,720 Speaker 1: written in an article. Yeah, that's lab stuff on Twitter 296 00:15:51,880 --> 00:15:53,760 Speaker 1: and on Facebook, you can just you can look up 297 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:55,720 Speaker 1: lab stuff or stuff from the Science Lab and you 298 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:57,800 Speaker 1: will find us and of course, if any of you 299 00:15:57,800 --> 00:15:59,360 Speaker 1: guys are listening here in the labs, we'd love to 300 00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:00,880 Speaker 1: hear what you're up to, so send us an email. 301 00:16:01,000 --> 00:16:10,200 Speaker 1: Science stuff at how staff works dot com. For more 302 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:12,520 Speaker 1: on this and thousands of other topics, is it how 303 00:16:12,600 --> 00:16:16,280 Speaker 1: stuff works dot com. Want more how stuff works, check 304 00:16:16,280 --> 00:16:18,440 Speaker 1: out our blogs on the house stuff works dot com 305 00:16:18,480 --> 00:16:19,000 Speaker 1: home page.