1 00:00:08,792 --> 00:00:11,083 [mysterious music] 2 00:00:13,875 --> 00:00:16,750 Imagine learning, your sibling is something 3 00:00:16,750 --> 00:00:20,958 your father brings home for a science experiment. 4 00:00:20,958 --> 00:00:25,667 - The Kelloggs are treating their two children identically. 5 00:00:26,708 --> 00:00:29,250 - Donald starts taking on the chimp's behaviors, 6 00:00:29,250 --> 00:00:30,708 pant-hooting and barking. 7 00:00:32,583 --> 00:00:35,167 - Or that a medical student drinks and bathes 8 00:00:35,167 --> 00:00:38,000 in something unusual, to prove a point. 9 00:00:38,917 --> 00:00:40,750 - He takes their urine, blood, 10 00:00:40,750 --> 00:00:42,625 and of course, the black vomit. 11 00:00:42,625 --> 00:00:47,375 - And proceeds to smear himself over every inch of his body 12 00:00:47,375 --> 00:00:50,375 like the worst cake you've ever seen in your life. 13 00:00:51,375 --> 00:00:55,875 - How about a countess whose beauty routine is to die for? 14 00:00:55,875 --> 00:00:58,292 - Elizabeth does whatever she can 15 00:00:58,292 --> 00:01:01,792 to get the thing that she wants most. 16 00:01:01,792 --> 00:01:03,417 Virgin blood. 17 00:01:04,375 --> 00:01:08,458 - And she starts experimenting. 18 00:01:08,458 --> 00:01:11,375 - These are stories of experiments so outrageous, 19 00:01:11,375 --> 00:01:14,125 they are truly unbelievable. 20 00:01:14,125 --> 00:01:16,417 [dramatic music] 21 00:01:26,542 --> 00:01:29,708 Everyone knows the stories of "The Jungle Book" and "Tarzan", 22 00:01:29,708 --> 00:01:32,167 boys brought up by wild animals. 23 00:01:32,167 --> 00:01:34,250 But what if you turn the tables 24 00:01:34,250 --> 00:01:38,208 and bring a baby wild animal home to raise it like a human? 25 00:01:39,375 --> 00:01:41,583 - Throughout history, there's been a lot of cases 26 00:01:41,583 --> 00:01:43,625 where children are separated from their families 27 00:01:43,625 --> 00:01:47,417 and raised by wolves or bears or other kinds of animals. 28 00:01:47,417 --> 00:01:49,583 - Records of feral child studies 29 00:01:49,583 --> 00:01:53,500 get the wheels turning of psychologist, Winthrop Kellogg. 30 00:01:53,500 --> 00:01:57,833 He starts to think, what if the situation was reversed? 31 00:01:57,833 --> 00:02:01,167 Could you compel an animal 32 00:02:01,167 --> 00:02:04,208 to behave as a human, 33 00:02:04,208 --> 00:02:08,500 were it raised exclusively in a human atmosphere? 34 00:02:09,750 --> 00:02:13,458 - So Kellogg brings home a seven-month-old chimp named Gua 35 00:02:13,458 --> 00:02:17,125 to raise alongside his 10-month-old son Donald. 36 00:02:17,125 --> 00:02:20,625 - They get the exact same behavior and treatment, 37 00:02:20,625 --> 00:02:23,750 feeding them the same way, diapers the same way, 38 00:02:23,750 --> 00:02:26,625 playing with them the same way, having them be playmates. 39 00:02:26,625 --> 00:02:31,458 The Kelloggs are treating their two children identically. 40 00:02:33,042 --> 00:02:36,625 - [Dan] And how are these unusual siblings measuring up? 41 00:02:36,625 --> 00:02:40,042 - Gua masters a lot of human traits like 42 00:02:40,042 --> 00:02:42,125 walking on two legs, wearing shoes, 43 00:02:42,125 --> 00:02:44,333 sitting in a high chair and eating with a spoon. 44 00:02:44,333 --> 00:02:46,708 She begins to understand and respond to commands like, 45 00:02:46,708 --> 00:02:47,958 "Show me your nose." 46 00:02:47,958 --> 00:02:49,667 "Give Donald a hug." 47 00:02:49,667 --> 00:02:52,500 - After nine months, Gua has excelled at some things, 48 00:02:52,500 --> 00:02:55,458 but she's not made any progress with language. 49 00:02:57,375 --> 00:02:58,917 She's not speaking English. 50 00:02:58,917 --> 00:03:02,583 She can understand things, but she is not moving forward. 51 00:03:02,583 --> 00:03:04,792 - [Dan] But Gua isn't the only one stuck. 52 00:03:05,917 --> 00:03:08,750 - Donald is also slow to speak. 53 00:03:08,750 --> 00:03:10,583 In fact, in some cases, 54 00:03:10,583 --> 00:03:13,000 Donald starts taking on the chimp's behaviors. 55 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:15,500 For example, when yelling for food or wanting for food, 56 00:03:15,500 --> 00:03:19,000 Donald joins Gua in pant-hooting and barking. 57 00:03:19,000 --> 00:03:24,542 - So this experiment to elevate a chimpanzee to human status 58 00:03:24,542 --> 00:03:29,542 is actually degrading his son's learning capabilities 59 00:03:29,542 --> 00:03:32,292 down to chimpanzee status. 60 00:03:34,500 --> 00:03:38,042 - The Kelloggs are concerned as Donald keeps falling behind. 61 00:03:38,042 --> 00:03:40,417 They decide to end the experiment 62 00:03:40,417 --> 00:03:42,917 and to return Gua to a primate center 63 00:03:42,917 --> 00:03:44,500 to be back with her group, 64 00:03:44,500 --> 00:03:48,333 and to allow Donald to move forward as a normal human child. 65 00:03:50,500 --> 00:03:54,083 - I guess the old adage is true, "Monkey see, monkey do." 66 00:03:54,083 --> 00:03:57,292 Which is the notion behind a noted psychologist's idea 67 00:03:57,292 --> 00:04:00,042 to test out theories on childhood aggression. 68 00:04:00,042 --> 00:04:02,542 [pensive music] 69 00:04:02,542 --> 00:04:05,708 - It's the early 1960s at Stanford University, 70 00:04:05,708 --> 00:04:08,375 and there is a social psychologist 71 00:04:08,375 --> 00:04:11,792 named Albert Bandura who believes the way children learn 72 00:04:11,792 --> 00:04:14,833 is by observing the adults around them. 73 00:04:14,833 --> 00:04:18,208 So he designs an experiment to test his theory 74 00:04:18,208 --> 00:04:20,375 and see if it holds water. 75 00:04:20,375 --> 00:04:24,875 - He and his assistants fill one nursery classroom 76 00:04:24,875 --> 00:04:28,333 with more aggressive toys, darts and mallets. 77 00:04:28,333 --> 00:04:32,292 Another one with less aggressive things like crayons 78 00:04:32,292 --> 00:04:33,708 and paper and paints. 79 00:04:33,708 --> 00:04:37,500 And of course, there is the Bobo doll. 80 00:04:40,667 --> 00:04:44,167 - A Bobo doll is this big blow up doll 81 00:04:44,167 --> 00:04:45,500 with a clown face on it. 82 00:04:45,500 --> 00:04:48,417 It's weighted at the bottom so you can punch it 83 00:04:48,417 --> 00:04:49,875 and it'll kind of fall to the ground 84 00:04:49,875 --> 00:04:51,375 and then bounce back up. 85 00:04:51,375 --> 00:04:53,375 - [Dan] The children are then brought in one at a time 86 00:04:53,375 --> 00:04:55,833 to watch adults play with the different toys. 87 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,208 - [Adam] So there's one group of kids that witness an adult 88 00:05:00,208 --> 00:05:02,667 aggressively beating the Bobo doll. 89 00:05:03,875 --> 00:05:06,417 - For the second group, an adult will come in 90 00:05:06,417 --> 00:05:09,250 and play with the non-aggressive toys, 91 00:05:09,250 --> 00:05:11,250 while essentially ignoring the Bobo doll 92 00:05:11,250 --> 00:05:12,750 at the front of the room. 93 00:05:12,750 --> 00:05:14,542 - [Dan] Then the adults leave the room 94 00:05:14,542 --> 00:05:17,208 as researchers sit behind a one-way mirror 95 00:05:17,208 --> 00:05:19,542 to see what the children do now. 96 00:05:19,542 --> 00:05:24,042 - The children who are subjected to an adult's violence 97 00:05:24,042 --> 00:05:26,042 mimic that violence. 98 00:05:28,042 --> 00:05:30,375 They beat Bobo using the mallets. 99 00:05:30,375 --> 00:05:33,375 They throw him up in the air, they sit on him, 100 00:05:33,375 --> 00:05:35,500 they unload on him verbally, 101 00:05:35,500 --> 00:05:38,917 saying all kinds of caustic, awful things. 102 00:05:40,458 --> 00:05:43,417 - The kids who watch the adult come in 103 00:05:43,417 --> 00:05:45,542 and play with the non-aggressive toys, 104 00:05:45,542 --> 00:05:46,833 they mimic that behavior. 105 00:05:46,833 --> 00:05:48,583 They are actually less aggressive 106 00:05:48,583 --> 00:05:51,500 than even the control group. 107 00:05:51,500 --> 00:05:53,208 - [Dan] Bandura's results are published 108 00:05:53,208 --> 00:05:55,792 and cause an international sensation. 109 00:05:55,792 --> 00:05:59,458 - This is really unprecedented for the time. 110 00:05:59,458 --> 00:06:04,250 It sounds so simple, but no one has been able to show 111 00:06:04,250 --> 00:06:06,542 that kids mimic adult behavior, 112 00:06:06,542 --> 00:06:08,708 especially when it comes to aggression. 113 00:06:08,708 --> 00:06:12,375 So this study becomes a really groundbreaking moment 114 00:06:12,375 --> 00:06:13,625 that has implications for 115 00:06:13,625 --> 00:06:15,792 the field of psychology moving forward. 116 00:06:17,292 --> 00:06:20,708 - The moral, be careful how you act in front of your kids. 117 00:06:20,708 --> 00:06:22,875 But if you think kids can be aggressive, 118 00:06:22,875 --> 00:06:25,250 they've got nothing on a couple of German doctors 119 00:06:25,250 --> 00:06:27,417 hopped up on experimental drugs. 120 00:06:28,583 --> 00:06:32,917 - Surgery in the 1880s is a miserable business. 121 00:06:32,917 --> 00:06:35,542 There isn't proper anesthesia yet. 122 00:06:35,542 --> 00:06:37,875 Chloroform is being used, 123 00:06:37,875 --> 00:06:40,875 but patients frequently die on operating tables, 124 00:06:40,875 --> 00:06:44,083 defeating the purpose of the procedure to begin with. 125 00:06:44,083 --> 00:06:47,833 - [Dan] Then in the 1890s, a new discovery shocks the world. 126 00:06:49,167 --> 00:06:51,167 - Scientists have discovered that 127 00:06:51,167 --> 00:06:53,500 if you inject a special solution 128 00:06:53,500 --> 00:06:55,667 into the spinal cord of the lower back, 129 00:06:55,667 --> 00:06:59,417 you can numb the extremities from the waist down. 130 00:06:59,417 --> 00:07:01,208 - [Dan] And that special solution? 131 00:07:01,208 --> 00:07:03,125 Liquid cocaine. 132 00:07:03,125 --> 00:07:05,042 Yes, that cocaine. 133 00:07:06,458 --> 00:07:10,708 - On August 8th, 1898, a German surgeon, August Bier, 134 00:07:10,708 --> 00:07:15,125 performs the first known spinal tap surgery. 135 00:07:15,125 --> 00:07:20,167 He is able to put a man's lower extremities to sleep 136 00:07:20,167 --> 00:07:23,042 to perform a foot surgery. 137 00:07:23,042 --> 00:07:26,042 - [Dan] Bier's operation gets him worldwide attention, 138 00:07:26,042 --> 00:07:28,167 but there's still a few kinks to work out. 139 00:07:29,542 --> 00:07:33,208 - Bier finds there isn't a total blockage 140 00:07:33,208 --> 00:07:35,917 of pain or sensation. 141 00:07:35,917 --> 00:07:38,708 This can limit the application of the method. 142 00:07:38,708 --> 00:07:41,000 - Also, in the aftermath of the surgery, during recovery, 143 00:07:41,000 --> 00:07:44,208 patients are reporting massive headaches, 144 00:07:44,208 --> 00:07:47,375 and Bier wants to get to the bottom of this as well. 145 00:07:47,375 --> 00:07:49,542 - [Dan] So Bier decides he needs to practice 146 00:07:49,542 --> 00:07:54,542 by experimenting on his friend, Dr. August Hildebrandt. 147 00:07:54,542 --> 00:07:56,917 - Who better to adequately articulate 148 00:07:56,917 --> 00:08:00,625 what is happening to their own body, than a fellow doctor? 149 00:08:00,625 --> 00:08:03,833 They'll be able to communicate in the exact same language. 150 00:08:03,833 --> 00:08:07,625 - Bier injects the 1% cocaine solution 151 00:08:07,625 --> 00:08:12,833 into his fellow physician's spinal fluid, 152 00:08:12,833 --> 00:08:16,750 and he finds that after about 40 minutes, 153 00:08:16,750 --> 00:08:21,542 the subject reports no sensation at all from the waist down. 154 00:08:21,542 --> 00:08:23,208 - But August Bier isn't gonna take 155 00:08:23,208 --> 00:08:24,875 Dr. Hildebrandt's word for it. 156 00:08:24,875 --> 00:08:28,458 He has to ensure he is completely numb. 157 00:08:29,875 --> 00:08:33,958 First, he snuffs out a lit cigar on Hildebrandt's leg. 158 00:08:35,542 --> 00:08:37,458 Nothing, he doesn't feel it. 159 00:08:37,458 --> 00:08:40,958 Next he takes a long needle, plunges it 160 00:08:42,333 --> 00:08:45,750 through Hildebrandt's thigh muscle until it hits his femur. 161 00:08:45,750 --> 00:08:49,167 - Hildebrandt is watching this happen, but he's numb. 162 00:08:49,167 --> 00:08:50,625 He doesn't feel a thing. 163 00:08:51,917 --> 00:08:56,750 - And then Bier plucks some of the subject's pubic hairs. 164 00:08:57,708 --> 00:09:00,208 - He then takes an iron hammer 165 00:09:00,208 --> 00:09:03,833 and chooses to smash the shin of his friend. 166 00:09:05,458 --> 00:09:07,042 Still zero reaction. 167 00:09:08,125 --> 00:09:11,125 - Does Bier have all the data he needs? 168 00:09:11,125 --> 00:09:12,958 He doesn't believe so. 169 00:09:12,958 --> 00:09:16,958 So he forcibly grabs, twists, 170 00:09:16,958 --> 00:09:22,250 and pulls Dr. Hildebrandt's testicles to no effect. 171 00:09:22,250 --> 00:09:23,917 Pretty conclusive. 172 00:09:25,292 --> 00:09:29,292 - After the experiment, the men celebrate its success. 173 00:09:29,292 --> 00:09:33,958 All seems well, but Hildebrandt does describe, 174 00:09:33,958 --> 00:09:38,917 like other patients, severe headaches in the days following. 175 00:09:38,917 --> 00:09:41,542 - It would take years for scientists to discover 176 00:09:41,542 --> 00:09:44,583 that the reason for these hangovers from 177 00:09:44,583 --> 00:09:49,667 cocainization spinal taps is, cocaine is toxic. 178 00:09:49,667 --> 00:09:52,375 - [Dan] Eventually doctors switch to cortisone 179 00:09:52,375 --> 00:09:56,042 and other steroid combinations, and the headaches go away. 180 00:09:56,042 --> 00:10:01,083 - Today, millions of epidurals are conducted the world over, 181 00:10:01,083 --> 00:10:05,500 for aid in childbirth and back and leg surgeries, 182 00:10:05,500 --> 00:10:10,292 all without smashing metal hammers or testicular twisting. 183 00:10:11,500 --> 00:10:12,750 - Note to self. 184 00:10:12,750 --> 00:10:14,917 Be careful who you trust when numbing agents 185 00:10:14,917 --> 00:10:16,167 and iron hammers are involved. 186 00:10:20,542 --> 00:10:21,833 - Throughout history, many people have sought 187 00:10:21,833 --> 00:10:24,042 an elusive goal, eternal youth, 188 00:10:24,042 --> 00:10:26,375 and they're willing to go to some pretty strange 189 00:10:26,375 --> 00:10:28,250 and extreme lengths to achieve it. 190 00:10:30,333 --> 00:10:33,542 - One of the most notorious figures of the 16th century 191 00:10:33,542 --> 00:10:36,583 is a countess named Elizabeth Bathory. 192 00:10:38,000 --> 00:10:42,125 - Her family is one of the most powerful in Hungary, 193 00:10:42,125 --> 00:10:44,042 and as young as age 11, 194 00:10:44,042 --> 00:10:48,083 Elizabeth is thought to be a ravishing beauty. 195 00:10:48,083 --> 00:10:51,875 She has suitors clamoring after her from far and wide. 196 00:10:51,875 --> 00:10:54,417 - Her family finds a suitable husband for her 197 00:10:54,417 --> 00:10:57,000 in Count Ferenc Nadasdy. 198 00:10:57,000 --> 00:11:00,833 - He educates Elizabeth in some of the military arts. 199 00:11:00,833 --> 00:11:04,083 Most notably, torture, 200 00:11:04,083 --> 00:11:06,167 and she loves it. 201 00:11:07,542 --> 00:11:09,125 - [Dan] But after nearly 30 years 202 00:11:09,125 --> 00:11:12,750 of this blissfully dark marriage, her husband dies, 203 00:11:12,750 --> 00:11:14,167 leaving her a widow. 204 00:11:15,208 --> 00:11:17,917 - After her husband dies, she's in her 40s. 205 00:11:17,917 --> 00:11:19,875 Her main concern, of course, 206 00:11:19,875 --> 00:11:22,792 is maintaining her youth and her beauty. 207 00:11:23,875 --> 00:11:27,417 - Elizabeth resolves to do whatever it takes 208 00:11:27,417 --> 00:11:29,667 to make eternal youth happen. 209 00:11:31,375 --> 00:11:35,667 - In a fit of anger one day, she smacks the face 210 00:11:35,667 --> 00:11:39,542 of a housemaid who bleeds from her lip. 211 00:11:39,542 --> 00:11:41,917 Elizabeth gets blood on her hand. 212 00:11:41,917 --> 00:11:43,833 After wiping it away, 213 00:11:43,833 --> 00:11:48,542 she notices that the previously bloodied patch of skin 214 00:11:48,542 --> 00:11:53,042 seems vital, glowing, rejuvenated, 215 00:11:53,042 --> 00:11:56,375 and she hits upon a horrific idea. 216 00:11:56,375 --> 00:12:01,625 - She wants to bathe in the blood of young maidens, 217 00:12:01,625 --> 00:12:05,125 which is creepy and disgusting. 218 00:12:05,125 --> 00:12:07,583 - [Dan] According to legend, she commands her inner circle 219 00:12:07,583 --> 00:12:09,208 to do her dirty work, 220 00:12:09,208 --> 00:12:12,083 rounding up young peasants from far and wide. 221 00:12:13,875 --> 00:12:17,042 - Using what she has learned from her late husband, 222 00:12:17,042 --> 00:12:19,875 Elizabeth takes these young maidens 223 00:12:19,875 --> 00:12:21,875 and cuts off their noses, 224 00:12:21,875 --> 00:12:24,792 sticks pins under their fingernails, 225 00:12:24,792 --> 00:12:28,000 bites their shoulders, and stabs them, 226 00:12:28,000 --> 00:12:30,625 and does whatever she can 227 00:12:30,625 --> 00:12:34,208 to get the thing that she wants most, 228 00:12:34,208 --> 00:12:35,833 virgin blood. 229 00:12:37,042 --> 00:12:40,833 - Elizabeth bathes, sometimes for hours, 230 00:12:40,833 --> 00:12:44,917 in the blood of her victims, washing with it, 231 00:12:44,917 --> 00:12:49,125 luxuriating in it, and sometimes even drinking it. 232 00:12:49,125 --> 00:12:51,042 - [Dan] The killings continue for years 233 00:12:51,042 --> 00:12:52,792 as Elizabeth becomes obsessed with 234 00:12:52,792 --> 00:12:54,625 keeping the experiment going. 235 00:12:54,625 --> 00:12:59,125 But soon, in her lust for youth, the Countess gets careless. 236 00:12:59,125 --> 00:13:03,625 - When she runs out of poor girls that she can murder 237 00:13:03,625 --> 00:13:06,875 for her bloodbaths, she then starts inviting the daughters 238 00:13:06,875 --> 00:13:10,750 of some of the lesser nobles over to use them instead. 239 00:13:10,750 --> 00:13:14,292 - No one seems to kick up much of a fuss 240 00:13:14,292 --> 00:13:17,500 over the disappearance of castle maids 241 00:13:17,500 --> 00:13:19,708 and local peasant girls. 242 00:13:19,708 --> 00:13:22,292 But the tide begins to shift 243 00:13:22,292 --> 00:13:27,583 when the daughters of minor nobility begin to disappear. 244 00:13:28,583 --> 00:13:31,000 - [Dan] Soon after, an investigation is launched 245 00:13:31,000 --> 00:13:33,792 by authorities to search the castle grounds. 246 00:13:34,875 --> 00:13:37,875 - They begin digging up and finding results of 247 00:13:37,875 --> 00:13:40,083 Elizabeth's little beauty experiment 248 00:13:40,083 --> 00:13:43,542 buried all over her grounds. 249 00:13:43,542 --> 00:13:48,167 - Elizabeth's minions are accused of killing 250 00:13:48,167 --> 00:13:51,875 80 daughters of local nobility, 251 00:13:51,875 --> 00:13:56,750 and a total of 600 girls overall. 252 00:13:56,750 --> 00:14:00,375 The servants take the punishment. 253 00:14:00,375 --> 00:14:02,083 They are executed. 254 00:14:03,292 --> 00:14:06,208 - Countess Elizabeth, because of her royal status, 255 00:14:06,208 --> 00:14:09,875 is spared execution, but she is forced into confinement 256 00:14:09,875 --> 00:14:13,875 in her chambers for the remaining years of her life. 257 00:14:13,875 --> 00:14:18,167 - She does attain a kind of immortality. 258 00:14:18,167 --> 00:14:22,000 She is widely remembered as perhaps 259 00:14:22,000 --> 00:14:26,625 one of the worst mass serial killers in history. 260 00:14:26,625 --> 00:14:28,833 [dramatic music] 261 00:14:29,958 --> 00:14:32,875 - Elizabeth is hardly the first or the last to believe 262 00:14:32,875 --> 00:14:35,958 the blood of youth has restorative powers. 263 00:14:37,958 --> 00:14:42,458 - Billionaire Bryan Johnson is a rejuvenation athlete. 264 00:14:44,042 --> 00:14:46,875 Everything in his life, everything he does, 265 00:14:46,875 --> 00:14:48,792 is focused on one goal. 266 00:14:48,792 --> 00:14:51,375 Staying young and prolonging his life. 267 00:14:52,750 --> 00:14:55,208 - He takes 111 supplements every single day. 268 00:14:55,208 --> 00:14:59,167 He goes to sleep at the exact same time every night. 269 00:14:59,167 --> 00:15:03,208 - He sleeps alone in a dark room with blackout curtains. 270 00:15:03,208 --> 00:15:06,208 He wears blue light glasses. 271 00:15:06,208 --> 00:15:08,208 - [Dan] But there's one crucial piece of his routine 272 00:15:08,208 --> 00:15:10,542 he believes will keep him young 273 00:15:10,542 --> 00:15:12,000 forever. 274 00:15:12,000 --> 00:15:16,125 - He's spending his billions on blood transfusions, 275 00:15:16,125 --> 00:15:19,542 to the tune of $2 million per year. 276 00:15:20,917 --> 00:15:23,208 - Every 30 days, he gets a blood transfusion, 277 00:15:23,208 --> 00:15:27,292 not just from anyone, but from someone young, in good shape, 278 00:15:27,292 --> 00:15:30,250 because he believes that young blood is gonna give him 279 00:15:30,250 --> 00:15:34,250 the energy and the power he needs to avoid aging. 280 00:15:34,250 --> 00:15:36,833 - But then he thinks, "Why go to strangers? 281 00:15:36,833 --> 00:15:39,542 I have a ready-made blood supply at home. 282 00:15:40,708 --> 00:15:42,875 My 17-year-old son, Talmage." 283 00:15:42,875 --> 00:15:44,208 - How are you? 284 00:15:44,208 --> 00:15:46,417 Do you want a bite of super veggie? 285 00:15:46,417 --> 00:15:49,000 - [Dan] Every month, the teen donates a liter of blood 286 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:50,583 to his father. 287 00:15:50,583 --> 00:15:53,917 That's a fifth of the entire human body's blood. 288 00:15:54,917 --> 00:15:56,875 - Johnson wants to be fair about all of this, 289 00:15:56,875 --> 00:16:00,208 so he donates his plasma to his father. 290 00:16:01,250 --> 00:16:02,917 - [Dan] It's the world's first ever 291 00:16:02,917 --> 00:16:06,208 intergenerational blood transfusion experiment. 292 00:16:06,208 --> 00:16:08,458 - It probably sounds a little crazy. 293 00:16:08,458 --> 00:16:11,333 It probably sounds like it couldn't possibly work. 294 00:16:11,333 --> 00:16:14,958 The thing is, it kind of does, at least in mice. 295 00:16:15,958 --> 00:16:18,125 - Researchers at UC San Francisco 296 00:16:18,125 --> 00:16:22,042 transfused blood from young mice into older mice, 297 00:16:22,042 --> 00:16:24,292 and those older mice get some benefits, 298 00:16:24,292 --> 00:16:25,833 they get a little bit more energy. 299 00:16:25,833 --> 00:16:28,083 Actually, some of their muscles are working a little better. 300 00:16:28,083 --> 00:16:30,167 And when you take the blood from those old mice 301 00:16:30,167 --> 00:16:32,208 and give it back to those young mice, 302 00:16:32,208 --> 00:16:34,208 the young mice are a little more sluggish. 303 00:16:34,208 --> 00:16:37,500 So clearly, something is going on here. 304 00:16:37,500 --> 00:16:41,000 - [Dan] Still, this starts to get old, even for Johnson. 305 00:16:42,292 --> 00:16:43,792 - After six treatments, 306 00:16:43,792 --> 00:16:46,458 Johnson decides he's not getting the results that he wants, 307 00:16:46,458 --> 00:16:49,667 so he switches to a new treatment, 308 00:16:49,667 --> 00:16:51,333 shock therapy. 309 00:16:51,333 --> 00:16:54,417 But not to his brain, to his genitals. 310 00:16:55,667 --> 00:17:00,292 - He receives acoustic shockwave therapy on his genitals, 311 00:17:00,292 --> 00:17:03,333 three to five times a month. 312 00:17:03,333 --> 00:17:07,208 He says that the pain is a 9 out of 10, 313 00:17:07,208 --> 00:17:11,750 but it has decreased the age of his penis 314 00:17:11,750 --> 00:17:13,625 by 15 years. 315 00:17:14,625 --> 00:17:17,958 - I'm not sure how Johnson measures these findings, 316 00:17:17,958 --> 00:17:19,708 but that's one treatment I'd pass on. 317 00:17:23,792 --> 00:17:26,083 - Proving a new theory often requires extreme dedication. 318 00:17:26,083 --> 00:17:28,375 One very motivated medical student 319 00:17:28,375 --> 00:17:31,333 is willing to put himself on the line to prove he's right, 320 00:17:31,333 --> 00:17:33,375 or literally die trying. 321 00:17:35,833 --> 00:17:40,125 - University of Pennsylvania medical trainee Stubbins Ffirth 322 00:17:40,125 --> 00:17:42,917 wants to write a thesis on yellow fever, 323 00:17:42,917 --> 00:17:47,125 especially about how it can spread from person to person. 324 00:17:48,792 --> 00:17:53,208 - Ffirth actually believes that yellow fever isn't contagious. 325 00:17:54,208 --> 00:17:56,375 Instead, he's observed that yellow fever 326 00:17:56,375 --> 00:17:59,708 mostly breaks out in summer months or in hot climates. 327 00:17:59,708 --> 00:18:02,458 He thinks that yellow fever is caused by heat. 328 00:18:03,458 --> 00:18:05,708 - He cooks up an experiment to prove that 329 00:18:05,708 --> 00:18:09,875 you can't catch yellow fever from someone else, 330 00:18:09,875 --> 00:18:11,500 and that experiment involves 331 00:18:11,500 --> 00:18:15,875 the most iconic symptom of yellow fever, 332 00:18:15,875 --> 00:18:17,792 black vomit. 333 00:18:18,792 --> 00:18:21,375 - [Dan] Lucky for him, there's no shortage of the stuff, 334 00:18:21,375 --> 00:18:23,292 because Philadelphia is in the middle of 335 00:18:23,292 --> 00:18:25,083 a yellow fever outbreak. 336 00:18:27,125 --> 00:18:29,208 - For the first step in the experiment, 337 00:18:29,208 --> 00:18:32,292 Ffirth makes an incision in his arm 338 00:18:32,292 --> 00:18:35,333 and simply pours the black vomit into it. 339 00:18:36,542 --> 00:18:39,167 There's a little bit of inflammation at the site, 340 00:18:39,167 --> 00:18:40,833 but other than that, he's fine. 341 00:18:43,083 --> 00:18:44,875 - What he does next is he takes some vomit 342 00:18:44,875 --> 00:18:46,208 and he mixes it in with water 343 00:18:46,208 --> 00:18:48,833 and he starts to dribble it in his eyes. 344 00:18:51,750 --> 00:18:52,875 And nothing. 345 00:18:54,042 --> 00:18:57,208 - Now Ffirth starts to get creative. 346 00:18:57,208 --> 00:18:59,792 He builds a vomit sauna. 347 00:19:01,042 --> 00:19:03,292 He sets himself up in a small closet 348 00:19:03,292 --> 00:19:07,208 and fries up some of the vomit, great vomit vapors 349 00:19:07,208 --> 00:19:10,792 that he inhales deeply over the course of two hours. 350 00:19:13,208 --> 00:19:14,792 Still nothing. 351 00:19:16,708 --> 00:19:18,667 - Now if you thought those were nasty, stick with me. 352 00:19:18,667 --> 00:19:20,583 This story gets a whole lot better. 353 00:19:20,583 --> 00:19:23,708 - He then goes as far as taking a patient 354 00:19:23,708 --> 00:19:26,375 with essentially end stage yellow fever, 355 00:19:26,375 --> 00:19:28,958 has them throw up directly into a cup, 356 00:19:28,958 --> 00:19:30,417 and he drinks it straight up. 357 00:19:31,292 --> 00:19:33,583 [tense music] 358 00:19:34,625 --> 00:19:35,833 He doesn't get it. 359 00:19:38,042 --> 00:19:39,542 - [Dan] But Ffirth is not finished. 360 00:19:39,542 --> 00:19:42,958 He decides he can still take the ick factor up. 361 00:19:42,958 --> 00:19:44,125 All the way up. 362 00:19:45,208 --> 00:19:49,250 - He proceeds to take the vomit and mix it with other fluids 363 00:19:49,250 --> 00:19:51,875 that have come from a yellow fever patient. 364 00:19:51,875 --> 00:19:54,875 - [J Mack] He takes their urine, he takes their saliva, 365 00:19:54,875 --> 00:19:56,417 he takes their blood. 366 00:19:56,417 --> 00:20:01,542 - And then proceeds to liberally smear himself from head to toe, 367 00:20:01,542 --> 00:20:03,500 covering himself like the worst cake 368 00:20:03,500 --> 00:20:05,500 you've ever seen in your life, 369 00:20:05,500 --> 00:20:08,333 all over every inch of his body. 370 00:20:10,083 --> 00:20:13,542 Stubbins Ffirth still walks away, 371 00:20:13,542 --> 00:20:16,750 not having succumbed to any yellow fever. 372 00:20:18,083 --> 00:20:21,125 - And he writes up his work in a paper, 373 00:20:21,125 --> 00:20:23,500 a treatise on malignant fever, 374 00:20:23,500 --> 00:20:27,583 with an attempt to prove that it is not contagious. 375 00:20:27,583 --> 00:20:29,208 - [Dan] While Ffirth did clearly prove 376 00:20:29,208 --> 00:20:32,708 you can't catch yellow fever by frolicking in black vomit, 377 00:20:32,708 --> 00:20:35,500 his thesis still has some sticking points. 378 00:20:36,542 --> 00:20:38,750 - So Ffirth was right that yellow fever 379 00:20:38,750 --> 00:20:41,667 is not directly transmitted from person to person. 380 00:20:41,667 --> 00:20:45,083 But he was wrong in thinking that it was caused by 381 00:20:45,083 --> 00:20:46,958 exposure to excessive heat. 382 00:20:46,958 --> 00:20:50,333 We know this because six decades later, in 1881, 383 00:20:50,333 --> 00:20:53,292 Cuban scientist Carlos Finlay proves 384 00:20:53,292 --> 00:20:54,708 that yellow fever is transmitted 385 00:20:54,708 --> 00:20:57,667 from person to person by mosquitoes. 386 00:20:57,667 --> 00:20:59,542 - And so Stubbins Ffirth downed 387 00:20:59,542 --> 00:21:03,333 all that black vomit for nothing. 388 00:21:03,333 --> 00:21:06,167 Our next go-getter doesn't need to worry about 389 00:21:06,167 --> 00:21:08,708 catching anything from his test subjects, 390 00:21:08,708 --> 00:21:10,667 because they're already dead. 391 00:21:12,875 --> 00:21:16,542 - In 1874, Alexander Graham Bell is a 27-year-old 392 00:21:16,542 --> 00:21:19,958 up and coming inventor, studying acoustics at MIT. 393 00:21:19,958 --> 00:21:22,958 As a day job, he is a teacher at the school for the deaf. 394 00:21:24,667 --> 00:21:29,250 - At the time, the deaf are seen and treated as outsiders. 395 00:21:29,250 --> 00:21:31,833 There is no tried and true method yet 396 00:21:31,833 --> 00:21:33,958 to teach the deaf to speak in a way 397 00:21:33,958 --> 00:21:36,708 that softens their sometimes harsh tones 398 00:21:36,708 --> 00:21:39,667 when they try to produce audible speech. 399 00:21:39,667 --> 00:21:42,667 - They're unable to hear the sounds that they're making, 400 00:21:42,667 --> 00:21:45,917 and thus are unable to refine those sounds. 401 00:21:45,917 --> 00:21:48,542 - He starts to think that if he could figure out a way 402 00:21:48,542 --> 00:21:50,875 for his students to visualize sound, 403 00:21:50,875 --> 00:21:53,208 then maybe they'll understand it and figure out a way 404 00:21:53,208 --> 00:21:54,583 to repeat it. 405 00:21:55,583 --> 00:21:58,250 - He's fascinated by the way the human ear works. 406 00:21:58,250 --> 00:22:01,250 Sound enters the ear, it vibrates, 407 00:22:01,250 --> 00:22:02,625 and every different kind of sound 408 00:22:02,625 --> 00:22:04,667 makes it vibrate a little differently. 409 00:22:04,667 --> 00:22:08,583 He wants to somehow capture that vibration visually. 410 00:22:10,375 --> 00:22:12,208 - [Dan] Bell sets out to build a device 411 00:22:12,208 --> 00:22:14,875 that can interpret and draw sound. 412 00:22:14,875 --> 00:22:16,500 - Bell wants to base his invention 413 00:22:16,500 --> 00:22:19,042 off of the anatomy of an actual human ear. 414 00:22:19,042 --> 00:22:22,125 So he talks to his colleague, Dr. Clarence Blake, 415 00:22:22,125 --> 00:22:24,958 who has an interesting idea. 416 00:22:24,958 --> 00:22:28,833 Why not use an actual human ear for this invention? 417 00:22:28,833 --> 00:22:31,375 But humans are kind of attached to their own ears, 418 00:22:31,375 --> 00:22:34,042 so he suggests using a dead person's ear. 419 00:22:35,208 --> 00:22:37,708 - Bell's friend, Dr. Clarence Blake, 420 00:22:37,708 --> 00:22:40,375 works with medical cadavers. 421 00:22:40,375 --> 00:22:46,333 He procures a human ear that has been preserved 422 00:22:46,333 --> 00:22:49,375 so that its innards, including the ear drum, 423 00:22:49,375 --> 00:22:51,125 are still intact. 424 00:22:52,292 --> 00:22:54,125 - [Dan] Now that Bell has his ear, 425 00:22:54,125 --> 00:22:57,542 he can build his prototype and start testing it out. 426 00:22:57,542 --> 00:23:02,208 - Bell fixes the ear to a stalk of hay. 427 00:23:02,208 --> 00:23:07,625 The stalk of hay travels from the eardrum to a plate 428 00:23:07,625 --> 00:23:12,208 that's covered with a thin layer of charcoal. 429 00:23:12,208 --> 00:23:15,333 - [Dan] His theory is that when sound hits the eardrum, 430 00:23:15,333 --> 00:23:17,417 the vibration will cause the hay to draw 431 00:23:17,417 --> 00:23:19,792 a unique pattern into the charcoal. 432 00:23:20,917 --> 00:23:23,500 - Bell begins speaking into this ear trumpet. 433 00:23:26,375 --> 00:23:27,875 And it works. 434 00:23:27,875 --> 00:23:30,417 When the vibrations of sound hit the eardrum, 435 00:23:30,417 --> 00:23:32,667 it ends up moving the hay, 436 00:23:32,667 --> 00:23:36,042 thus drawing waveforms in the charcoal. 437 00:23:36,042 --> 00:23:38,417 And each one of those waveforms is unique 438 00:23:38,417 --> 00:23:40,792 to the letter or the word that he's saying. 439 00:23:40,792 --> 00:23:44,458 - Next, Bell performs the experiment with his students. 440 00:23:45,333 --> 00:23:47,958 He speaks an A into the device, 441 00:23:47,958 --> 00:23:51,208 and the students can see the shape of a proper A. 442 00:23:51,208 --> 00:23:54,125 - Now the students can speak into the device themselves, 443 00:23:54,125 --> 00:23:56,208 create their own shape of sound, 444 00:23:56,208 --> 00:23:58,375 and match it against vowels. 445 00:23:58,375 --> 00:24:00,208 - [Dan] Bell calls the new device 446 00:24:00,208 --> 00:24:02,208 the Dead Ear Phonautograph. 447 00:24:02,208 --> 00:24:04,875 - Not only does this device 448 00:24:04,875 --> 00:24:09,833 dramatically assist deaf people in communicating, 449 00:24:09,833 --> 00:24:14,958 but it forms the germination of Bell's most famous device, 450 00:24:14,958 --> 00:24:16,708 the telephone. 451 00:24:16,708 --> 00:24:18,292 - He begins to theorize that you could use 452 00:24:18,292 --> 00:24:21,042 the sound of your voice to create an electrical current 453 00:24:21,042 --> 00:24:23,833 to send your voice down a telegraph wire. 454 00:24:23,833 --> 00:24:27,875 And voila, two years later, the invention of the telephone. 455 00:24:29,042 --> 00:24:31,958 - Bell has no idea that 150 years later, 456 00:24:31,958 --> 00:24:34,875 his invention will be small enough to fit in your pocket, 457 00:24:34,875 --> 00:24:37,125 and annoy parents at dinner tables all over the world. 458 00:24:41,875 --> 00:24:43,417 - Some of the greatest books and movies 459 00:24:43,417 --> 00:24:44,875 feature tales of the undead, 460 00:24:44,875 --> 00:24:46,875 but you probably wouldn't be surprised to learn that 461 00:24:46,875 --> 00:24:50,042 they take their inspiration from real-life research. 462 00:24:51,208 --> 00:24:53,125 - It's 1803 in Italy. 463 00:24:53,125 --> 00:24:56,583 A 40-year-old researcher named Giovanni Aldini 464 00:24:56,583 --> 00:24:58,875 is on a mission to prove a theory 465 00:24:58,875 --> 00:25:03,542 that the human body runs on its own electrical current. 466 00:25:04,583 --> 00:25:06,625 - And he believes that if there is already 467 00:25:06,625 --> 00:25:09,042 an electrical current within the body, 468 00:25:09,042 --> 00:25:13,583 that by subjecting a dead body to electrical current, 469 00:25:13,583 --> 00:25:17,292 you can very possibly reanimate the dead. 470 00:25:18,917 --> 00:25:21,708 Aldini decides he wants to get a body on the up and up, 471 00:25:21,708 --> 00:25:23,875 and he reaches out to local prisons 472 00:25:23,875 --> 00:25:25,958 to try to acquire the corpse 473 00:25:25,958 --> 00:25:29,208 of a recently executed prisoner. 474 00:25:29,208 --> 00:25:31,875 - Lucky for Aldini, a man named George Foster 475 00:25:31,875 --> 00:25:33,875 has been sentenced to death, 476 00:25:33,875 --> 00:25:36,750 and they're willing to give Aldini Foster's body 477 00:25:36,750 --> 00:25:38,208 fresh from the gallows. 478 00:25:39,208 --> 00:25:42,875 - The execution goes as planned, Aldini acquires the body. 479 00:25:42,875 --> 00:25:46,542 And then, at London's Royal Academy of Surgeons, 480 00:25:46,542 --> 00:25:48,833 he schedules a real event, 481 00:25:48,833 --> 00:25:51,875 invites the press to showcase his theory 482 00:25:51,875 --> 00:25:54,708 with this freshly dead body. 483 00:25:55,875 --> 00:25:57,542 - The theater is packed with 484 00:25:57,542 --> 00:25:59,333 the best and brightest of the day, 485 00:25:59,333 --> 00:26:02,792 and everyone in the oval theater has their eyes on 486 00:26:02,792 --> 00:26:06,833 the wooden slab where Foster's body is lying, 487 00:26:06,833 --> 00:26:08,375 covered by a white sheet. 488 00:26:09,375 --> 00:26:12,250 - [Dan] Aldini rips the sheet from Foster's body 489 00:26:12,250 --> 00:26:14,792 as a hush falls over the room. 490 00:26:14,792 --> 00:26:17,583 - Aldini picks up prods that are connected by wires 491 00:26:17,583 --> 00:26:20,000 to a zinc battery. 492 00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,583 The electricity flows forth, he approaches the body, 493 00:26:23,583 --> 00:26:26,833 and the crowd is on the edge of their seats. 494 00:26:26,833 --> 00:26:30,042 He touches the prod to the dead man's face. 495 00:26:30,042 --> 00:26:34,125 The dead man, George Foster, opens one of his eyes. 496 00:26:34,125 --> 00:26:38,417 Then Aldini takes the prod and puts it in his nether regions 497 00:26:38,417 --> 00:26:40,333 and his whole body convulses. 498 00:26:41,292 --> 00:26:43,917 - George Foster's arm then goes up in the air, 499 00:26:43,917 --> 00:26:45,542 his legs are starting to move. 500 00:26:45,542 --> 00:26:48,292 The entire audience thinks that the deceased 501 00:26:48,292 --> 00:26:49,875 is about to stand up. 502 00:26:51,208 --> 00:26:52,625 - [Dan] And then, 503 00:26:54,875 --> 00:26:57,917 Aldini's battery dies and the experiment ends. 504 00:26:59,125 --> 00:27:01,792 But while George Foster doesn't come back to life, 505 00:27:01,792 --> 00:27:04,833 Aldini's legacy does live on. 506 00:27:04,833 --> 00:27:07,458 - The experiments do indicate that electricity 507 00:27:07,458 --> 00:27:09,583 can at least stimulate dead tissue. 508 00:27:09,583 --> 00:27:12,208 That part of the experiment is a success. 509 00:27:12,208 --> 00:27:14,125 - As bizarre as the Aldini experiment is, 510 00:27:14,125 --> 00:27:17,417 he's credited with pioneering electrotherapy as we know it, 511 00:27:17,417 --> 00:27:19,208 as a modality of treatment. 512 00:27:19,208 --> 00:27:23,583 But there's also another thing that he is credited with. 513 00:27:23,583 --> 00:27:27,000 Mary Shelley wrote the book "Frankenstein" 514 00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:30,208 10 years after the Aldini experiment. 515 00:27:30,208 --> 00:27:33,833 Frankenstein, in which a dead body is reanimated 516 00:27:33,833 --> 00:27:38,208 with electrical impulses, sounds very familiar. 517 00:27:39,708 --> 00:27:41,458 - But it doesn't end there. 518 00:27:41,458 --> 00:27:43,292 Fast forward a century later 519 00:27:43,292 --> 00:27:46,458 and these electrifying ideas find a new life 520 00:27:46,458 --> 00:27:48,750 with yet another mad scientist. 521 00:27:49,958 --> 00:27:55,333 - Robert Cornish is born in 1903 in San Francisco. 522 00:27:55,333 --> 00:28:00,417 He graduates from high school at age 15. 523 00:28:00,417 --> 00:28:04,667 By age 21, he is a practicing MD. 524 00:28:04,667 --> 00:28:07,750 - One thing marks him as a little strange. 525 00:28:07,750 --> 00:28:10,125 His fascination with death. 526 00:28:11,292 --> 00:28:14,375 - Although he may have been somewhat influenced 527 00:28:14,375 --> 00:28:17,875 by the work of Aldini or maybe even the writer Shelley, 528 00:28:17,875 --> 00:28:20,208 he devises his own special method 529 00:28:20,208 --> 00:28:22,792 of attempting to reanimate the dead. 530 00:28:22,792 --> 00:28:26,083 - He straps his dead patients to a seesaw 531 00:28:26,083 --> 00:28:28,625 and he injects them with adrenaline to stimulate them, 532 00:28:28,625 --> 00:28:30,667 and heparin to thin their blood. 533 00:28:30,667 --> 00:28:33,667 And then he vigorously teeters the seesaw 534 00:28:33,667 --> 00:28:36,042 to stimulate their circulation. 535 00:28:36,042 --> 00:28:38,667 - Cornish completes his experiment a number of times 536 00:28:38,667 --> 00:28:40,500 with absolutely no luck. 537 00:28:40,500 --> 00:28:44,125 - [Dan] But Dr. Cornish isn't about to let his theory die. 538 00:28:45,458 --> 00:28:50,750 - Dr. Cornish reasons that he needs a freshly dead being. 539 00:28:50,750 --> 00:28:54,167 Well, he starts with animals. 540 00:28:54,167 --> 00:28:56,792 - [Dan] Cornish acquires five fox terriers 541 00:28:56,792 --> 00:28:58,833 and names them each Lazarus, 542 00:28:58,833 --> 00:29:01,083 a cheeky nod toward the biblical character 543 00:29:01,083 --> 00:29:03,208 who rose from the dead. 544 00:29:03,208 --> 00:29:06,208 - Cornish is so convinced that his theory is correct, 545 00:29:06,208 --> 00:29:08,875 he makes a spectacle of this. 546 00:29:08,875 --> 00:29:11,708 He invites the public, he invites the press. 547 00:29:11,708 --> 00:29:14,042 - He then euthanizes these five dogs, 548 00:29:14,042 --> 00:29:17,917 straps them to the seesaws, injects them, 549 00:29:17,917 --> 00:29:19,958 and starts the teetering. 550 00:29:19,958 --> 00:29:22,250 Three of them don't make it. 551 00:29:22,250 --> 00:29:27,333 - But in fact, two of the five dogs come back to life. 552 00:29:28,875 --> 00:29:33,292 One is in a state of paralysis and is not responsive. 553 00:29:33,292 --> 00:29:35,750 - [Cornish] His nervous system was shocked badly, 554 00:29:35,750 --> 00:29:38,042 and even now he is still in a stupor. 555 00:29:38,042 --> 00:29:39,875 - [Dan] The fifth and final Lazarus 556 00:29:39,875 --> 00:29:41,583 not only comes back to life, 557 00:29:41,583 --> 00:29:44,458 but within four days, makes a complete recovery. 558 00:29:45,750 --> 00:29:48,958 - Cornish's experiments are hailed as a success 559 00:29:48,958 --> 00:29:50,833 and he's lauded in the press. 560 00:29:52,375 --> 00:29:56,333 A film called "Life Returns" is even made about him in 1935. 561 00:29:57,542 --> 00:30:00,167 - [Dan] After the success of Lazarus the Fifth, 562 00:30:00,167 --> 00:30:03,208 the modern day Prometheus is ready to try once again 563 00:30:03,208 --> 00:30:06,500 on humans, but he'll need a fresh corpse. 564 00:30:08,042 --> 00:30:09,833 - Cornish gets a volunteer, 565 00:30:09,833 --> 00:30:12,333 a convicted killer named Thomas McGonagall, 566 00:30:12,333 --> 00:30:15,375 who's willing to donate his body to science. 567 00:30:15,375 --> 00:30:17,792 - This is the chance of a lifetime for Cornish. 568 00:30:17,792 --> 00:30:19,333 He approaches 569 00:30:19,333 --> 00:30:22,208 the California Department of Corrections for permission. 570 00:30:22,208 --> 00:30:26,208 - By law, once an inmate is executed for a crime, 571 00:30:26,208 --> 00:30:29,333 they have technically served their sentence. 572 00:30:29,333 --> 00:30:31,458 - Were he to be revived from death, 573 00:30:31,458 --> 00:30:33,833 there would be no choice but to allow 574 00:30:33,833 --> 00:30:37,083 this reanimated murderer to reintegrate 575 00:30:37,083 --> 00:30:38,958 into California society. 576 00:30:38,958 --> 00:30:42,375 That is a price the California Board of Corrections 577 00:30:42,375 --> 00:30:46,542 are unwilling to pay in the name of science. 578 00:30:46,542 --> 00:30:48,250 - McGonagall is put to death, 579 00:30:48,250 --> 00:30:51,333 and Cornish is not allowed to recover his body, 580 00:30:51,333 --> 00:30:54,292 putting an end to Cornish's dream of becoming 581 00:30:54,292 --> 00:30:57,167 the first real Dr. Frankenstein. 582 00:30:58,458 --> 00:31:00,458 - I guess we can rest easy knowing there are no 583 00:31:00,458 --> 00:31:03,208 reanimated convicted murderers out there 584 00:31:03,208 --> 00:31:05,167 walking around like Frankenstein's monster. 585 00:31:09,333 --> 00:31:11,625 - Today, we don't think twice about having a tiny camera 586 00:31:11,625 --> 00:31:12,875 sent down our throats, 587 00:31:12,875 --> 00:31:15,333 but that's hardly the case about a century ago 588 00:31:15,333 --> 00:31:18,542 when some pioneering souls decide to be the first 589 00:31:18,542 --> 00:31:21,708 to boldly go where no one has gone before. 590 00:31:21,708 --> 00:31:23,458 Inside the human body. 591 00:31:25,875 --> 00:31:28,417 - Physician Adolf Kussmaul 592 00:31:28,417 --> 00:31:31,500 is attempting to diagnose stomach ailments, 593 00:31:31,500 --> 00:31:34,458 in particular, tumors of the stomach. 594 00:31:34,458 --> 00:31:36,792 He faces a key barrier, 595 00:31:36,792 --> 00:31:42,208 which is that he has no way of gazing into the organ. 596 00:31:42,208 --> 00:31:44,375 - There is no instrument that's capable of doing this. 597 00:31:44,375 --> 00:31:46,083 And so what does he want to do? 598 00:31:46,083 --> 00:31:47,583 He wants to invent it. 599 00:31:49,125 --> 00:31:51,542 - [Dan] Kussmaul crafts a rigid metal tube 600 00:31:51,542 --> 00:31:54,333 that's a foot and a half long, half inch wide, 601 00:31:55,500 --> 00:31:57,333 and lit by a gas lamp. 602 00:31:58,542 --> 00:32:01,625 - A tube of this length inserted into the esophagus 603 00:32:01,625 --> 00:32:03,750 is going to be uncomfortable. 604 00:32:03,750 --> 00:32:07,458 - Anatomically, there are a bunch of structures in your way. 605 00:32:07,458 --> 00:32:08,750 There's the larynx. 606 00:32:08,750 --> 00:32:11,583 There are all of the muscles associated with swallowing. 607 00:32:11,583 --> 00:32:14,083 And there is the gag reflex. 608 00:32:15,208 --> 00:32:18,625 - A lot can go wrong with this procedure. 609 00:32:18,625 --> 00:32:23,208 In the 1860s, if you pierce the esophagal tube itself, 610 00:32:23,208 --> 00:32:25,292 that is a death sentence. 611 00:32:25,292 --> 00:32:28,750 So this procedure requires exquisite care. 612 00:32:29,833 --> 00:32:31,208 - He racks his brain. 613 00:32:31,208 --> 00:32:33,792 Who could he get to test this procedure on? 614 00:32:33,792 --> 00:32:35,667 And then he has an idea. 615 00:32:35,667 --> 00:32:37,792 - Back in the day in the streets of Germany, 616 00:32:37,792 --> 00:32:39,208 he would see street performers, 617 00:32:39,208 --> 00:32:41,667 but not just any street performers, sword swallowers. 618 00:32:43,042 --> 00:32:45,042 Kussmaul finds the perfect test subject. 619 00:32:45,042 --> 00:32:47,333 A man named The Iron Henry, 620 00:32:47,333 --> 00:32:50,250 who has mastered the art of sword swallowing. 621 00:32:51,667 --> 00:32:53,917 - [Dan] Kussmaul spends months developing his new procedure 622 00:32:53,917 --> 00:32:56,792 with Iron Henry, and by 1868, 623 00:32:56,792 --> 00:33:00,125 he's ready to show it off to the medical world. 624 00:33:00,125 --> 00:33:04,292 - The onlookers are unaware that the subject is 625 00:33:04,292 --> 00:33:06,542 a professional sword swallower. 626 00:33:06,542 --> 00:33:10,083 All they know is that this man is about to have 627 00:33:10,083 --> 00:33:15,375 an oblong, foot and a half long, metal tube 628 00:33:15,375 --> 00:33:17,625 inserted down his throat. 629 00:33:17,625 --> 00:33:21,208 - Kussmaul slowly maneuvers the device into his esophagus, 630 00:33:21,208 --> 00:33:22,792 down into his stomach. 631 00:33:22,792 --> 00:33:25,292 - [Dan] While Kussmaul succeeds in getting the tube 632 00:33:25,292 --> 00:33:28,083 into Iron Henry's stomach without killing him, 633 00:33:28,083 --> 00:33:30,458 he does run into another issue. 634 00:33:30,458 --> 00:33:34,500 - The big problem is it's pitch black inside the human body. 635 00:33:34,500 --> 00:33:36,958 Because of the limitations at the time, 636 00:33:36,958 --> 00:33:38,417 he has this gas flame 637 00:33:38,417 --> 00:33:41,167 that can barely illuminate a portion of the esophagus, 638 00:33:41,167 --> 00:33:43,583 and it is not seen by any means 639 00:33:43,583 --> 00:33:46,042 by the medical community as a slam dunk. 640 00:33:47,000 --> 00:33:48,542 - A dozen years later, 641 00:33:48,542 --> 00:33:53,375 an Austrian team is able to improve upon Kussmaul's design, 642 00:33:53,375 --> 00:33:56,042 and make it something that is now clinically useful. 643 00:33:57,208 --> 00:33:59,875 - And it comes from electricity. 644 00:33:59,875 --> 00:34:03,000 - Today, over 75 million endoscopies are performed 645 00:34:03,000 --> 00:34:04,833 every year in the U.S., 646 00:34:04,833 --> 00:34:07,125 which were inspired by Kussmaul's original design, 647 00:34:07,125 --> 00:34:08,458 the gastroscope. 648 00:34:09,875 --> 00:34:12,375 - Something to think about the next time your doctor says, 649 00:34:12,375 --> 00:34:15,042 "Open wide and say, ahh." 650 00:34:15,042 --> 00:34:17,417 But if sword swallowers advancing medicine 651 00:34:17,417 --> 00:34:21,708 sounds shocking, wait until you see this next experiment. 652 00:34:21,708 --> 00:34:24,083 [pensive music] 653 00:34:24,083 --> 00:34:26,917 - In 1963, Stanley Milgram 654 00:34:26,917 --> 00:34:29,542 conducts a very famous experiment 655 00:34:29,542 --> 00:34:33,250 to see how far people will go against their conscience, 656 00:34:33,250 --> 00:34:36,708 when instructed by an authority figure. 657 00:34:36,708 --> 00:34:38,292 - He sets up an experiment 658 00:34:38,292 --> 00:34:41,750 in which there is a teacher and a learner, and they're told, 659 00:34:41,750 --> 00:34:44,250 if the learner answers the question incorrectly, 660 00:34:44,250 --> 00:34:46,208 you're to shock the learner. 661 00:34:46,208 --> 00:34:48,000 [electricity buzzing] [participant shouting] 662 00:34:48,000 --> 00:34:49,792 - What the teachers don't know is that 663 00:34:49,792 --> 00:34:53,042 the learners aren't actually participants, they're actors. 664 00:34:53,042 --> 00:34:54,708 And so when they're screaming and crying 665 00:34:54,708 --> 00:34:56,583 and begging for the teachers to stop, 666 00:34:56,583 --> 00:34:58,458 none of that's actually happening. 667 00:34:58,458 --> 00:35:01,333 [electricity buzzing] [participant screaming] 668 00:35:01,333 --> 00:35:04,417 - Almost a decade later, in 1972, 669 00:35:04,417 --> 00:35:07,208 two behavioral researchers, 670 00:35:07,208 --> 00:35:10,750 Charles Sheraton and Richard King, 671 00:35:10,750 --> 00:35:15,042 decide that they want to build on the Milgram experiments. 672 00:35:15,042 --> 00:35:17,708 - Critics of Milgram's original work said 673 00:35:17,708 --> 00:35:20,500 maybe the teachers knew those weren't real shocks, 674 00:35:20,500 --> 00:35:23,500 so they want to use real shocks this time. 675 00:35:23,500 --> 00:35:26,667 Obviously, they're not allowed to administer shocks 676 00:35:26,667 --> 00:35:30,583 to humans, so they decide rather than using actors, 677 00:35:30,583 --> 00:35:33,167 they're going to use puppies. 678 00:35:34,417 --> 00:35:36,583 - For the experiment, they picked 26 volunteers, 679 00:35:36,583 --> 00:35:40,125 half men, half women, and they're brought into the room 680 00:35:40,125 --> 00:35:41,792 in front of the control panel and told 681 00:35:41,792 --> 00:35:44,208 they are meant to help train a puppy discern 682 00:35:44,208 --> 00:35:47,208 between a steady light and a flickering light. 683 00:35:47,208 --> 00:35:49,125 - So the puppy is brought in 684 00:35:49,125 --> 00:35:51,292 and he is shown to stand in front of the light 685 00:35:51,292 --> 00:35:52,917 that is flashing. 686 00:35:52,917 --> 00:35:55,958 The participants are told if the puppy gets it wrong, 687 00:35:55,958 --> 00:35:58,708 they have to administer an electric shock to the puppy. 688 00:36:00,458 --> 00:36:02,583 - The puppy receives a shock, 689 00:36:03,667 --> 00:36:06,125 but it's really only enough to elicit a yelp 690 00:36:06,125 --> 00:36:07,958 or a whimper at first. 691 00:36:07,958 --> 00:36:09,500 And the people are horrified 692 00:36:09,500 --> 00:36:12,917 and want to stop pretty much immediately. 693 00:36:12,917 --> 00:36:16,458 But when told by a figure in a lab coat they must continue, 694 00:36:17,375 --> 00:36:18,875 that's exactly what they do. 695 00:36:20,125 --> 00:36:22,542 When people begin to see these puppies 696 00:36:22,542 --> 00:36:25,708 enduring increasing amounts of pain, 697 00:36:25,708 --> 00:36:28,375 they do everything they can to stop. 698 00:36:28,375 --> 00:36:30,833 Some of them even try to hint to the puppy 699 00:36:30,833 --> 00:36:32,333 which way to go, 700 00:36:32,333 --> 00:36:36,042 and yet when they are told to continue, they do. 701 00:36:36,042 --> 00:36:38,500 [tense music] 702 00:36:38,500 --> 00:36:42,417 - 20 out of 26 subjects 703 00:36:42,417 --> 00:36:45,208 listen to the man in the white coat 704 00:36:45,208 --> 00:36:48,042 and they amp up the electrical shock 705 00:36:48,042 --> 00:36:51,875 all the way to the furthest extent that they are told. 706 00:36:51,875 --> 00:36:53,542 [puppy whimpering] 707 00:36:53,542 --> 00:36:55,750 - [Dan] Sheridan and King had originally predicted 708 00:36:55,750 --> 00:36:58,208 the women would be more averse to shocking the puppies 709 00:36:58,208 --> 00:37:00,333 and would eventually stop. 710 00:37:00,333 --> 00:37:02,875 But what they find is something different. 711 00:37:02,875 --> 00:37:07,250 - Of those subjects who go all the way 712 00:37:07,250 --> 00:37:10,792 in administering the electrical shocks, 713 00:37:10,792 --> 00:37:13,792 100% are female, 714 00:37:13,792 --> 00:37:16,750 54% are male. 715 00:37:16,750 --> 00:37:19,958 It's an odd and unmistakable division. 716 00:37:19,958 --> 00:37:23,875 It could be that our stereotypes of gender roles 717 00:37:23,875 --> 00:37:26,833 are just that, stereotypes. 718 00:37:26,833 --> 00:37:29,500 [tense music] 719 00:37:29,500 --> 00:37:32,667 - Thankfully, none of the puppies are seriously injured 720 00:37:32,667 --> 00:37:34,375 in the making of this experiment. 721 00:37:38,333 --> 00:37:40,208 - How long can a person go without sleep, 722 00:37:40,208 --> 00:37:41,667 and can it kill you to find out? 723 00:37:41,667 --> 00:37:43,417 These are the burning questions 724 00:37:43,417 --> 00:37:47,292 two high schoolers decide to answer in the early 1960s. 725 00:37:48,375 --> 00:37:51,583 - Randy Gardner and Bruce McAllister 726 00:37:51,583 --> 00:37:54,375 are 17-year-old high school buddies, 727 00:37:54,375 --> 00:37:56,958 and they're trying to come up with an idea 728 00:37:56,958 --> 00:37:59,083 for their science fair. 729 00:37:59,083 --> 00:38:02,042 - Randy hears about a DJ in Honolulu 730 00:38:02,042 --> 00:38:06,042 who stayed awake for 11 days, which set the world record, 731 00:38:06,042 --> 00:38:09,417 and they decide, hey, what if we try to break that record? 732 00:38:10,500 --> 00:38:11,875 - Now since it's a science fair, 733 00:38:11,875 --> 00:38:15,333 they have to pose a question that will be solved 734 00:38:15,333 --> 00:38:17,000 by their experiment. 735 00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:18,542 The question they ask, 736 00:38:18,542 --> 00:38:21,417 "What is the effect of sleep deprivation 737 00:38:21,417 --> 00:38:22,958 on cognitive function?" 738 00:38:24,250 --> 00:38:25,958 And because they're two 17-year-old dudes, 739 00:38:25,958 --> 00:38:29,417 they add, "And performance on the basketball court." 740 00:38:29,417 --> 00:38:31,667 - This sounds like a fun idea, 741 00:38:31,667 --> 00:38:33,375 but the thinking is at the time 742 00:38:33,375 --> 00:38:36,042 that long periods of sleep deprivation 743 00:38:36,042 --> 00:38:40,167 can do real psychological harm, potentially even kill you. 744 00:38:40,167 --> 00:38:42,208 - The boys flip a coin to determine 745 00:38:42,208 --> 00:38:43,917 who will not be sleeping. 746 00:38:43,917 --> 00:38:48,708 Randy loses and so Bruce will monitor his progress, 747 00:38:48,708 --> 00:38:51,375 and try to keep him awake, with the help of a third friend, 748 00:38:51,375 --> 00:38:52,708 Joe Marciano. 749 00:38:52,708 --> 00:38:53,917 So between the two of them, 750 00:38:53,917 --> 00:38:56,583 someone will always be up with Randy. 751 00:38:56,583 --> 00:38:59,542 - [Dan] During Christmas break in 1963, 752 00:38:59,542 --> 00:39:01,208 the experiment begins. 753 00:39:01,208 --> 00:39:03,667 - The first day goes by without issue, 754 00:39:03,667 --> 00:39:07,417 but after 24 hours, Houston, we have a problem. 755 00:39:08,625 --> 00:39:11,500 - Randy can already start to feel the effects. 756 00:39:11,500 --> 00:39:14,250 He has difficulty concentrating, reading, 757 00:39:14,250 --> 00:39:16,042 and even watching TV. 758 00:39:16,042 --> 00:39:17,708 - After two days without sleep, 759 00:39:17,708 --> 00:39:20,750 Randy starts having trouble with his hands 760 00:39:20,750 --> 00:39:23,208 and repeating back tongue twisters. 761 00:39:23,208 --> 00:39:25,667 - [Dan] The local papers get wind of their experiment 762 00:39:25,667 --> 00:39:29,000 and soon it goes the 1960s version of viral. 763 00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:31,542 - Believe it or not, at the time, it becomes 764 00:39:31,542 --> 00:39:34,667 the third most written about story in the nation, 765 00:39:34,667 --> 00:39:38,583 only behind The Beatles' trip to America 766 00:39:38,583 --> 00:39:40,875 and the Kennedy assassination. 767 00:39:40,875 --> 00:39:43,042 - [Dan] That's when the experiment catches the attention 768 00:39:43,042 --> 00:39:44,875 of Dr. William Dement, 769 00:39:44,875 --> 00:39:47,542 a sleep science expert who offers to help. 770 00:39:49,042 --> 00:39:52,208 - So by day three, Dr. Dement and his team arrive, 771 00:39:52,208 --> 00:39:55,542 and they begin testing Randy's cognitive function. 772 00:39:57,208 --> 00:39:59,667 They start giving Randy memory tests 773 00:39:59,667 --> 00:40:02,708 and Randy epically fails. 774 00:40:02,708 --> 00:40:05,875 He can't identify what a light bulb is. 775 00:40:05,875 --> 00:40:08,500 - [Dan] As the sleepless days and nights continue, 776 00:40:08,500 --> 00:40:10,125 his condition worsens. 777 00:40:10,125 --> 00:40:12,250 - He becomes nauseous. 778 00:40:12,250 --> 00:40:15,542 He's moody, incredibly temperamental. 779 00:40:15,542 --> 00:40:17,542 Randy starts snapping at reporters 780 00:40:17,542 --> 00:40:20,833 and he's barely able to resist the urge to sleep. 781 00:40:22,333 --> 00:40:26,042 - Interestingly, some of his senses actually get amplified, 782 00:40:26,042 --> 00:40:28,833 like his sense of smell is stronger 783 00:40:28,833 --> 00:40:32,042 and some of those smells agitate him. 784 00:40:32,042 --> 00:40:35,250 - [Dan] There's also another unbelievable upside. 785 00:40:35,250 --> 00:40:38,125 - His performance on the basketball court is elevated. 786 00:40:39,542 --> 00:40:41,542 It's incredible. 787 00:40:41,542 --> 00:40:45,708 - In the end, Randy stays up for 264.4 hours, 788 00:40:45,708 --> 00:40:49,708 which equates to around 11 days and 25 minutes, 789 00:40:49,708 --> 00:40:53,417 beating the record set by that Honolulu DJ 790 00:40:53,417 --> 00:40:56,708 who only made it to 260 hours. 791 00:40:56,708 --> 00:40:58,542 - [Dan] After the experiment ends, 792 00:40:58,542 --> 00:41:02,167 Gardner sleeps for 14 straight hours 793 00:41:02,167 --> 00:41:04,708 and then feels completely fine. 794 00:41:04,708 --> 00:41:08,542 - The experiment wins Randy and his friends first place 795 00:41:08,542 --> 00:41:12,167 at the 10th Annual Greater San Diego Science Fair. 796 00:41:12,167 --> 00:41:16,958 - Fast forward 50 years, Randy is interviewed by NPR 797 00:41:16,958 --> 00:41:19,667 and he says that after doing this, 798 00:41:19,667 --> 00:41:22,708 he suffered from insomnia for the rest of his life 799 00:41:22,708 --> 00:41:24,792 and he's really never quite been the same. 800 00:41:26,333 --> 00:41:28,667 - While not every experiment produces the results 801 00:41:28,667 --> 00:41:30,833 we hope for, they always push us 802 00:41:30,833 --> 00:41:32,750 further down the road of knowledge. 803 00:41:32,750 --> 00:41:35,083 From never sleeping, to hacking your own blood, 804 00:41:35,083 --> 00:41:36,917 to sipping on black bile, 805 00:41:36,917 --> 00:41:39,042 as long as we keep testing the limits, 806 00:41:39,042 --> 00:41:42,292 we'll continue to find the unbelievable.