Surprising Science — January 2, 2011

25 Scariest Experiments Ever

While science can improve our lives and cure disease, it can also be used for evil. Here are 25 experiments that destroyed lives, or have the potential to unleash doomsday.

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The infamous “shock” experiments conducted by Stanley Milgram in the 1960s showed just how far people would go, when ordered to hurt somebody else by an authority figure. The well-known psychological study brought in volunteers who thought they were participating in an experiment where they would deliver shocks to another test subject. A doctor requested that they deliver greater and greater shocks, even when the “test subject” started to scream in pain and (in some cases) die. In reality, the experiment was to see how obedient people would be when a doctor told them to do something that was obviously horrific and possibly fatal.

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