Dose of STEM: Five Wild Experiments Conducted by Scientists

If you were a scientist, what would you do in the lab? Create a baking soda volcano? Build a time machine? Invent the vaccine for Covid-19? Well, some scientists thought of some pretty (ahem) unusual hypothesis to research in their lab coats. What theories did they want to prove? And did they actually prove them? Let's find out!

Experiment #1: Do knives made out of frozen human feces work?

Ew! Who would want to make a knife out of frozen poop? Gross! However, according to an account found by archaeologists, it was said that an Inuit man manufactured a knife from his own frozen feces to butcher a dog, and this account has since spread through the academic world as well as mainstream culture. This is how the story was told:

“There is a well known account of an old Inuit man who refused to move into a settlement. Over the objections of his family, he made plans to stay on the ice. To stop him, they took away all of his tools. So in the midst of a winter gale, he stepped out of their igloo, defecated, and honed the feces into a frozen blade, which he sharpened with a spray of saliva. With the knife he killed a dog. Using its rib cage as a sled and its hide to harness another dog, he disappeared into the darkness.”

Since publication, the tale has been told and retold countless times in documentaries, books and across the Internet. Scientists being scientists, of course, a group of them wanted to test the validity of this strange claim. They did an experiment which involved using someone's poop to make a knife and test whether it could slice through pig hide, muscle and tendons. (Don't fret, animal lovers; no animals were harmed in this experiment). In order to obtain the necessary "raw materials", one scientist nobly volunteered to go on an eight-day arctic diet with high protein and fatty acids. The "raw materials" were formed into knives with ceramic molds, knife molds, or (oh dear) shaped by hand.

The Answer: No

The experiment found that knives made from poop could not actually slice through animal body parts, leading the scientists to question the credibility of the original story. The findings were published in the Journal of Archaeological Science in October 2019.

Experiment #2: Do vampire bats social distance?

Homo sapiens is arguably one of the most intelligent animal species on planet Earth. Regardless of this fact, many human beings ignore public health guidelines and do not engage in the practice of social distancing. This made scientists wonder: are animals better than humans at social distancing?

Researchers from Ohio State University gave wild vampire bats a substance that triggered their immune system and made them feel sick, before returning them to their roost. Another group of bats acted as the control and were given a harmless substance. Data on the vampire bats' social interactions was transmitted to the scientists via "backpack" computers attached to their backs.

The Answer: Yes

Compared to the control group, sick bats interacted with fewer bats, spent less time near others and stayed away from the social butterflies of the group who were very well-connected within the roost. Healthy bats also tended to avoid sick bats. It is quite amazing to see wild bats (vampire bats) be able to social distance without any public health guidelines to nag them to do so. It is times like these when you despair in the human race. The study was published in the Behavioral Ecology journal in October 2020.

Experiment #3: Do blue-eyed humans have one common ancestor?

Scientists at the University of Copenhagen knew that all humans originally had brown eyes. So why are there so many blue-eyed folks all around us? The team decided to track down a genetic mutation that happened 6,000-10,000 years ago and find the truth once and for all. The mutation, affecting the OCA2 gene in chromosomes, created a "switch" which could literally "turn off" the production of brown eyes in humans. It doesn't turn off the switch entirely, but rather reduces the production of melanin in the iris, changing brown to blue. (If the switch was completely turned off, albinism would occur.)

The Answer: Yes

The scientists found that blue-eyed individuals only have a small amount of variation in melanin in their eyes, which led them to conclude that all of them must have been descended from one single person. They studied blue-eyed folks from all over the world, from Jordan to Denmark to Turkey.

So if you are fortunate enough to have baby blue eyes, the next time you see another member of the Blue Eyes Club, give that person a high-five! Both of you are probably related to each other through your ancient ancestor!

Experiment #4: Could zebra finches get onto The Masked Singer?

Boisterous, red-beaked songbirds known as zebra finches have distinct calls. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley wanted to see how strong was the zebra finches' ability to identify their feathered friends based on the unique sounds the birds make. Zebra finches, which mate for life, usually travel around in colonies of 50 to 100 birds, flying apart and then coming back together. Their songs are typically mating calls, while their distance or contact calls are used to identify where they are, or to locate one another .In a two-part experiment, 20 captive zebra finches were trained to distinguish between different birds and their vocalizations. Next, the zebra finches were placed, one at a time, inside a chamber and listened to sounds as part of a reward system.

The Answer: Yes

Like us humans, who can instantly differentiate between voices of friends or relatives we know, zebra finches have a near-human ability of memorizing voices. They can rapidly memorize the signature sounds of at least 50 different birds in their flock. Both male and females zebra finches performed so well the researchers even gave them extra challenges. Plus, they were still able to identify the birds based on their unique sounds a month later. The study was published in the Science Advances journal in November 2020.

Experiment #5: Do caterpillars head-butt to get what they want?

Do baby butterflies act like your annoying little sibling? Monarch caterpillars predominantly feed on milkweed and often strip entire plants bare of leaves over a two-week period. In many locations, milkweed is only available for part of the year, placing a significant constraint on monarch development. Monarchs also impact the milkweed plants they consume -- at their largest and hungriest phase, a single caterpillar may devour an entire milkweed leaf in under five minutes. Thus, scientists wanted to see whether the Hungry Caterpillar would morph into an Angry Hulk when faced with a lack of food.

The Answer: Yes

When food is scarce, your cute little caterpillar goes from passive to VERY aggressive. The less food there is, the more likely caterpillars will head-butt, lung and knock aside other competitors to get the milkweed it desires. Perhaps that's where your baby sibling learnt the skill of martial arts from: the Hungry Caterpillar books. The findings of the study was published in the iScience journal in November 2020.

Which was your favourite experiment? Do you know of any weird science studies too? Comment down below!