Elephant on acid, dog head grafts and a seesaw to revive the dead

[kpete]

Elephant on acid, dog head grafts and a seesaw to revive the dead

Madness or genius? Magazine compiles list of most bizarre tests ever conducted in name of scientific inquiry

One Friday in August 1962 Warren Thomas, director of Lincoln Park Zoo in Oklahoma City, raised his rifle and took aim at Tusko the elephant. With a squeeze of the trigger he scored a direct hit on the animal's rump, firing a cartridge full of the hallucinogenic drug LSD into the animal's bloodstream.

The dose was 3,000 times what a human might take for recreational purposes, and the results were extraordinary. Tusko charged around and trumpeted loudly for a few minutes before keeling over dead.

Thomas and his colleagues maintained the mishap was the result of a scientific experiment to investigate whether LSD brought on an unusual condition in which elephants become aggressive and secrete a sticky fluid from their glands. In a report of the incident submitted to the US journal Science four months later, the team concluded: "It appears that the elephant is highly sensitive to the effects of LSD."

The case of Tusko the elephant is among 10 of the most bizarre experiments carried out in the quest for knowledge and reported in New Scientist magazine today. If there is a fine line between madness and genius, many of those involved firmly crossed it.

more weirdness at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2007/nov/01/research

[Greyskye]

1. You'd fall over dead too...

...if you started seeing gigantic mice leaving trails in the air behind them. Not to mention the bars of his cage melting.

[panader0]

2. Ok, I have used LSD "recreationally"

but 3000 times the amount? I weigh 200 lbs, and that times 3000 is 600,000 lbs. Poor elephant.

[unpossibles]

3. yeah, I'm not sure what effect they were going for there

that is crazy.

[shadowknows69]

4. What's even more bizarre

Is that those scientists survived giving an elephant that much acid.

[Skidmore]

5. Sometimes advanced education isn't all it's cracked up to be...

just sayin'.

[bigmonkey]

6. If I recall correctly, that's the only instance of a being dying directly from LSD overdose.

Dosage of that substance is gauged by brain weight - the elephant's brain is on the same scale as the human brain, so that was ca. 3000 times the intended dose. I had no idea that happened in Lincoln Park.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

7. Imagine what a great party they could have had with 3,000 hits of acid

and a live elephant.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

8. Answering the much asked question - just how many hits of acid are enough to kill an elephant?

Poor fellow.