POP CULTURE REWIND: MEDICAL MADNESS

Editorial Assistant Martha Florence analyses five scientist’s dedication to their special niche.

I’ll let you decide: this can be a vaguely interesting—or unquantifiably boring—article to skim and forget, or an informative guide on the myriad ways to perform totally ethical and above-board experiments. Your choice, no judgement will be held. 

Speaking of upstanding ethics, that line of thought often naturally leads to stereotypes of the mad, Frankensteinian scientist. Those with electrocuted hair, struggling with acute vitamin D deficiency from a vampiresque antipathy to direct sunlight, et cetera. 

But like all wild rumours and high tales, this too has a basis in fact. 

So, for my third pop rewind, I thought I’d spotlight five scientists who have demonstrated remarkable devotion to their field, be it kinematics, virology or malaria, using the best test subjects at their disposal: themselves.

Until proven (or, more accurately, until all other options have been disproven), theory is simply that—theory, conjecture. Madness and genius are two sides of the same chocolate button left out in the sun, a fact made clear as these scientists were rewarded for their efforts with either marvellous success or an early death—a bit of a precarious gamble, if you’re on your last box of pipette tips and your parents have started dropping pointed comments at family dinners again, like “Isaac’s still between jobs,” and mourning a more stable career choice. A skydiving instructor, perhaps, or a Nokia C5 tech assistant. 

For some, though, that gamble is simply part of science, and so here are four researchers who wilfully put themselves on the line for the sake of their niche. Mad, genius, or a bit of both, I suppose we’ll never know. 

(Please note: reproducibility of these experiments is low, and not advised. Do proceed with caution.) 

Sir Isaac Newton – an eye for an eye

Circa 1660

Before prisms and refraction, to test whether colour was detected within the eye or before the visual process began, Newton turned to his mother’s sewing kit for inspiration. (This is before feminism, please relax. I’m aiming for realism, here, and somehow I doubt his father was fixing snags and buttonholes. It would be brilliant if he did, though.) 

Using a needle or small knife (accounts disagree), slipping this between his eyeball and socket to put pressure on the very back of his eye, Newton recorded any changes in his vision. These experiments necessitated an extensive recovery period of prolonged darkness due to all the strain he put on his eyes, but in the end it paid off: Opticks, the book detailing the results of all his experimentation, was a great success, and foregrounded our knowledge of physical light properties.

Rating: Isaac really had the lowest fight or flight response in history; I can barely keep my eyes open to successfully apply mascara. Even though his eye-poking didn’t directly lead to his corpuscular theory, for me it’s still 8/10 dedication and perseverance.

Tu Youyou, Nobel laureate – back to the roots

Mid-twentieth century

Entrenched in the Vietnam War, the exponential spread of malaria was causing chaos among soldiers and the people of Vietnam and China. Scientists were working around the clock to find a cure, and had analysed over two-hundred thousand compounds without success. As a little plot twist, pharmaceutical chemist Tu Youyou returned to traditional Chinese medicine to see if her team would have better luck there—and they did. 

After many, many trials, she landed on a compound called artemisinin, extracted from wormwood, which successfully destroyed the malaria parasite. In the wake of her discovery, Youyou insisted on being patient zero in the human phase of clinical trials, testing the substance’s safety on herself before allowing the trial to continue. 

Rating: artemisinin saved millions of lives and continued to be used as treatment for many years (now, unfortunately, malaria is slowly becoming resistant). 10/10 for quietly beating half the world, demurely conducting a successful trial, and receiving a Nobel prize as extra kudos. 

Jesse Lazear – one for the team

1900

Continuing with our mosquito trail but jumping back a few years, after graduating as a physician, Lazear joined a group of scientists studying malaria. This is years before Youyou, when very little was known about the parasite and how its disease was transmitted to humans. In 1900, Lazear reported for duty in the US army and was sent to Cuba as a surgeon. There, he was put on a yellow fever assignment—a disease that creates similar symptoms to malaria and is also spread via mosquitos. 

At the time, it was widely believed that yellow fever was spread via bedbugs, however Lazear combined his knowledge of malaria and his experience in the field to hypothesise the disease was actually contracted via mosquito bites. To prove this, he deliberately allowed himself to get bitten, documenting his decision and symptoms before they led to his death. 

Rating: Lazear knew he was right and wasn’t afraid to prove it. 9/10 fearless behaviour. 

Beata Halassy – my way or the highway

2020

When Halassy discovered she had recurrent breast cancer, after previously undergoing extensive and gruelling treatment, she knew she couldn’t suffer the toll of more chemotherapy that did not have a high chance of success. She was, however, certainly not about to give up. 

A virologist herself who was working on a synthesised oncolytic virus, Ovs, that was being tested as a new form of immunotherapeutic cancer treatment (a therapy that stimulates the body’s own immune cells—sort of like giving the immune system a kick-starting energy drink). Rather than endure more chemo, Halassy injected herself with their current OV models, although it was not yet ready for human trials. The therapy worked, and five years later, she is still tumour free. 

Rating: although Halassy found her cure, OVs will probably not be seen in clinical trials for a while, and Halassy has received significant clapback from the scientific community for her disregard of ethics. Personally, however, I’m impressed with how she STEM-girled her way to remission. The self-help books wouldn’t know what to do with themselves; 9/10 for solving her own problems without a shred of doubt.