Before I begin I’d just like to state that this is my first book review and it turns out it’s a very different affair to reviewing movies. Massively, massively different. I mean you have to turn pages and everything. Still I hope this comes out as well as it did in my head. Enjoy.
I love science. To me it offers far better explanations for the mysteries of the universe than any religion or philosophy have ever put forward. Science, by it’s very nature, is constantly changing with each new discovery challenging and changing what we thought we knew to be true. There are experiments in history, however, that challenge more than just our previous knowledge. Some challenge our sense of morality, delving into subjects such as death, resurrection and the nature of evil. Others challenge our common sense such as the knowledge that it is our sense of taste that determines how our brain processes what something tastes like. Yet others just make us say why such as the decision to give elephants LSD apparently to see just what happens when you do such a thing.
It is these experiments that the book ‘Elephants on Acid and Other Bizarre Experiments’ by Alex Boese set out to explore and bring to the forefront. There are some old standards that you’ve probably heard of if you’ve ever taken a psychology class or are in any way interested in science such as Milgram’s Obedience Experiment or the Stanford Prison Experiment but there’s a wealth of others that would probably never even enter into the consciousness of the general public if not for this book.
The book focuses primarily on to areas of science, biology and psychology and it certainly makes sense to do so. After all it’s these areas which concern the average human being the most, discoveries about living things and their minds. It’s also within these two disciplines that some of the most fascinating, horrifying, amusing and strange experiments have occurred.
The book is set out in to ten chapters, each one dealing with a specific category of experiments and given chapter headings which give you an indication of that chapters subject matter. Some examples include ‘Frankenstein’s Lab’, ‘Animal Tales’, and ‘Making Mr Hyde’. Each of these chapters is further broken up into a short description of each experiments, the results and generally an explanation of the reasons that the experiments where carried out in the first place, though in some cases, such as the titular experiment involving elephants and LSD, this can be difficult to determine.
Alex Boese has an engaging, humorous writing style and clearly also has a love of the sciences and a genuine respect for the scientists he writes about in the book managing to convey that no matter how horrific or bizarre the experiments these people carried out were, they honestly thought they were attempting to better the world and our understanding of it. He also helpfully includes an introduction which cements this and really sets the tone for the rest of the book.
Now, I’m not going to write about any of the experiments in full detail but I’ll give you a taste of some of the things you’ll find here. You’ll read about an electrified corpse with wires inserted into its rectum, Stubbins Firth who drank the vomit of yellow fever patients, people who can’t stop thinking about white bears, a bag that went to college, a severed dog head that was still alive and, of course, elephants on acid.
I literally read this book in a few hours after purchasing it so I think it’s fair to say that I enjoyed it very much and, if you have even a passing interest in science or the strange then I urge you to buy it and read it for yourself. It’s a truly fascinating look at some of the weirder aspects of the world of science. I give it five pints out of five. Laterz.
