Six of history's most unethical human experiments, from deliberate flu exposure to withholding syphilis treatment

Psychedelic therapy's ethical guidelines (or lack thereof)

With a checkered history of misconduct, how will psychedelic-assisted therapists be held accountable in the emerging legal field? This article explores the nascent field's need for ethical guidelines and clear protection of patient rights when therapeutic breakthroughs teeter "on the edge of consent."

At the beginning of the 20th century, a group of young men ate standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—as part of government research to better understand food safety.

Listen to how the 1902 'poison squad' experiments changed food safety in America

As part of government research, a group of young men were paid to eat standard American food—replete with food additives like borax and formaldehyde—which revealed the dangers of unregulated food. The work was led by the first FDA commissioner, Harvey Wiley, who helped end the "century of the great stomachache."

How the placebo effect became mainstream

Contemporary patients and medical students take the placebo effect for granted, as its a standard element in most drug trials. But the concept was only first debated and standardized in the 1950s after a ground-breaking 1955 paper by medical...

The scandal that rocked stem cell research

In 2014, a Japanese research group published a paper suggesting ordinary cells could be reverted to pluripotent stem cells by subjecting them to external stressors. The results generated interest but could never be replicated. The lead researcher was accused of fraud, and the group’s supervisor committed suicide.

A history of vaccine rollouts

History tells us the public will tolerate risk of harm from a vaccine if their fear of the disease exceeds their fear of the vaccine.

Surgery before the dawn of anesthesia

The arc toward anesthetics was painfully slow, with early pain mitigation offerings ranging from analgesics—drugs that dim pain but don't block it—and numbing surgical sites with cold water to gassing patients with carbon dioxide or bashing or bleeding them unconscious. Such treatments and the torturous surgery they preceded led many to avoid even life-saving procedures, and those who survived often kept silent about the trauma.

Harvard drowned rats for this?

Harvard's 1950s rat study was ethically questionable, but scientifically profound. One rescue attempt made rats swim 40x longer. The finding: hope isn't poetic, it's biological.

The story of the 1945 Minnesota Starvation Experiment

Amid the severe conditions of World War II, researchers were eager to learn the effects of starvation in a controlled study. This podcast dives into a yearlong study of 36 men at a Minneapolis college who endured a six-month period of semi-starvation, where their caloric intake was halved. Results from the experiment became a landmark study in human starvation.

The first line of 'immortal' human cells, which can divide indefinitely and are used in scientific research, was nonconsensually taken from a Black woman.

Some UK doctors pushed for broad 'do not resuscitate' orders for autistic adults during COVID

The controversial push was to create such orders without individuals' or their families' consent, underscoring modern-day prejudice against people on the spectrum.

IVF was long considered controversial and ethically dubious

In spite of its wide acceptance as a form of reproductive assistance today, and its role in helping millions of people have children, in vitro fertilization was once considered a controversial threat to society. One magazine went as far as to describe the procedure as "the biggest threat since the atom bomb."

About 70% of the Human Genome Project's reference genome came from one donor

Volunteers who donated blood to the Human Genome Project consented to using no more than 10% of their DNA, raising questions about the project's legality. Listen to how pressure from a private competitor may have driven officials to ignore ethical standards.

The history of brainwashing in America

"Brainwashing" refers to a coerced shift in worldview, often associated with cults or oppressive totalitarian governments. Though such processes are not well understood on a neurological level, they hold an outsized role in public imagination, particularly in science fiction and dystopias. This article reviews the history of the term, first popularized by Edward Hunter in 1950, and the subsequent use of the approach in pop psychology, the CIA, and more.

A pediatric journal ran 138 fictional case studies, and 61 were cited as real stories

The Canadian journal Paediatrics & Child Health issued corrections to 138 case studies published since 2000, acknowledging the cases were entirely fictional—a practice intended to protect patient privacy that was never disclosed to readers. At least 61 of the fabricated reports were cited as fact in other peer-reviewed journals a combined 218 times, including a 2006 Lancet article alleging an infant died from opioid-laced breast milk.

When was the first blood transfusion?

In the 1600s, an English doctor transferred the blood from one dog to another via quills. The procedure ended when one of the dogs died. This article details the early days of blood transfusions, which turned toward humans shortly after the 1666 dog experiment and involved putting the blood of a sheep into a human recipient (who reportedly survived the encounter).

Hacking the body for a future that didn't happen

Journalist Adi Robertson experimented with one of the most accessible biohacks: magnets. Having a tiny magnet in their right ring finger meant they could sense magnetic fields, attract small metal objects, and more. But magnets weaken over time, eroding this new sense. Such implants do more than offer a new way of interacting with the world, they also pose new complications, such as the inability to get an MRI.

Google Search trends reveal truths about society that traditional surveys miss

Studies of human behavior show that survey respondents may lie to present themselves more favorably. By studying anonymous search data, researchers have uncovered hidden racism, mental health struggles, and interest in taboo or stigmatized topics.

The lack of diversity in clinical trials is undermining the future of precision medicine

Medicine works better when the treatments are tailored to fit each individual person’s biology and history. Homogeneous patient selection in clinical trials means treatments and care are being refined based on only a small range of variables, some of which may not apply to you. This 40-minute podcast episode discusses the historical and current reasons for the lack of clinical trial diversity and what this means for the future of personalized medicine.

There are at least 6 fascinating examples of mind-controlling parasites

Parasitic organisms—including flatworms and barnacles, not just fungi—can modify animal behavior. They can give rise to dancing fish, pulsating snails, suicidal rats, and more. Though some of these pathogens can sicken humans, there is no strong evidence that any can control human behavior.

One US psychiatrist at Nuremberg viewed top Nazis like Göring as normal

The surviving leaders of the Nazi movement had overseen a catastrophic war and the cruel extermination of millions. US psychiatrist Douglas Kelley evaluated the 22 men ahead of their infamous trials, viewing them as intelligent, cultured men without a moral compass. Kelley would later die by suicide.

See the evolution of Ebola vaccine and treatment development.

The peer support movement may date back to 18th century France

At the Bicêtre Hospital, an asylum near Paris, Jean-Baptiste Pussin (who had previously been a patient but later led the hospital administration) tried to hire as many staff as possible from among recovered patients. Chief physician Philippe Pinel found these individuals to be kinder than other staff and "averse from active cruelty" which was common at the time. This approach allowed the facility to move away from shackling patients and other violent methods.

Two-thirds of antibiotic classes were made between the 1940s and 1960s

The vast majority of bacterial treatments were developed during the "Golden Age of Antibiotics," an era of rapid innovation and drug discovery that led to the reduction of millions of deaths worldwide. Since 1970, only eight new antibiotic classes have been discovered.

Early 20th-century ID cards protected trans people in Germany using hormone therapy

A small number of passes were granted by the German police—with clinician support—between 1909 and 1933 that nominally allowed them to dress in ways that matched their gender identity, use experimental hormone therapies, and even receive early sex reassignment surgeries. At the time, individuals could be charged with "public nuisance" without the pass.

The history of torturing robots

When machines fail, its easy to get mad and even give them a good kick. But as humanoid robots become more sophisticated, the degree to which people abuse them has shifted, depending on how much emotion the robot expresses. Studies revealed when robots were programmed to cry during distress, participants felt empathy. Learn more about the history of human abuse of robots here.

Hippocratic doctors treated severe mental illness with the poisonous plant hellebore

Since symptoms like hallucinations were believed be due to an imbalance of black bile, yellow bile, blood, and phlegm, the treatment at the time was to bring those humors back into balance. That meant standard treatments could include bleeding a patient or using substances like hellebore to induce vomiting or diarrhea.

What happened to thousands of teens from the 1990s?

Scientists followed thousands of teenagers from 1997 into their 30s, cataloging their adverse experiences along the way via nearly three decades of interviews. Teens who grew up dealing with poverty, uninvolved parents, and other childhood stressors and traumas racked up an ACE score. These adverse childhood experiences have lifelong impacts on one's health, relationships, financial security, and "pretty much everything else," making them more likely to suffer premature death.

Read a deep dive on the 'all-purpose healing' peptide BPC-157.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

The concept of phantom limbs, the perception that amputated limbs are still present, dates back to a French military surgeon in the 16th century.

See images of medical cases of firework injuries shared on this 'Instagram for doctors.' (Warning: Graphic content)

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

Before humans, the Soviet Union and the United States sent animals—including apes, dogs, and cats—to space during the Space Race.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Against his wishes, Albert Einstein's brain was removed before his cremation, and the pathologist responsible stored it for decades in mason jars within a beer cooler.

About 12.5% of US adults experience a phobia in their lifetime, a diagnosis that hinges on the intense fear interfering with daily life and persisting for at least six months.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

In 2018, 26-year-old missionary John Allen Chau was killed by tribesmen after attempting to reach and evangelize on India's isolated North Sentinel Island

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

20,000 letters to the advice columnist 'Dear Abby' provide insight into prevailing sex, religion, and LGBTQ fears, anxieties, and concerns from the 1950s onward.

See a ranking of the best (and worst) Federal Reserve Chairs since 1914 out of the 16 men and women who have held the office since.

In 2019, a laptop loaded with six of the worst malware in history and described as 'an exhibit of historical weaponry' sold for $1.3M.

The US Constitution is widely regarded as the longest-standing written national constitution still in force—see how it has influenced rights worldwide.

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

A researcher recently discovered an interview from 1967 between groundbreaking journalist Joan Didion and the Grateful Dead, years before the band became an institution.