Tag Archives: History

Science Club post III: Milgram experiment (an update)

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To access the original experiment, click here.

To access the original experiment, click here.

We’ve gazed the Observable Universe; we’ve melted metals with the heat of our bodies; we’ve painted with ferrofluids and Neodymium.

All of these are but a very miniscule sample of what science can be. They’re not, by far, all of what science entails. This said, we have to address science critically, philosophically, and with humanistic sensibilities.

Today we’ll talk about a very important topic in science: ethics. Science can open our minds; it can empower us to strive against chaos. But, unfortunately, this human endeavor has been used to commit atrocities.

Will it happen again? Could we avoid the perils of science without ethical considerations? These questions should be part of any scientific curriculum. And the study of recent history provides perspective on the topic.

The Milgram experiment on obedience to authority–done in 1961–was a series of experiments conducted at Yale University, by psychologist Stanley Milgram. This experiment was done a few months after the trial of a Nazi war criminal called Adolf Eichmann. The purpose of the experiment was to answer the following questions: “Could it be that Eichmann and his million accomplices in the Holocaust were just following orders? Could we call them all accomplices?”

The following video is an update to the experiment:

Milgram faced a lot of criticism because of his experiment. Many respected researchers believed that it was unethical.

What do you believe? Is it unethical? Does the experiment teaches us something about human nature? If so, what lessons would these be?

The following quote was taken from Milgram’s 1974 article, The Perils of Obedience. It addresses the results of the experiment; results that deal with the aforementioned questions:

The legal and philosophic aspects of obedience are of enormous importance, but they say very little about how most people behave in concrete situations. I set up a simple experiment at Yale University to test how much pain an ordinary citizen would inflict on another person simply because he was ordered to by an experimental scientist. Stark authority was pitted against the subjects’ [participants’] strongest moral imperatives against hurting others, and, with the subjects’ [participants’] ears ringing with the screams of the victims, authority won more often than not. The extreme willingness of adults to go to almost any lengths on the command of an authority constitutes the chief finding of the study and the fact most urgently demanding explanation.

Ordinary people, simply doing their jobs, and without any particular hostility on their part, can become agents in a terrible destructive process. Moreover, even when the destructive effects of their work become patently clear, and they are asked to carry out actions incompatible with fundamental standards of morality, relatively few people have the resources needed to resist authority

After watching and discussing the video, ask yourself the following question: What type of person are you: the one that goes all the way to the lethal shock, or the one who stops and questions authority?

Cell biology and art.

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The discussion of the chemistry of life always leads up to bigger and more evident levels of biological concepts. Thanks to eons of emergent interactions between the elements of life–CHNOPS–, we have cells, the basic unit of life. And it took mankind more than 2,000 years to make the important breakthrough of discovering that all life is made out of cells. So, all matter is made out of atoms–and the interaction of its subatomic particles with other atoms–, and all life is made out of cells.

In 1665, English scientist Robert Hooke studied nature by using an early light microscope. Thanks to his curiosity and his inquiry–and his skills as an artist; his drawings are valuable works of art–today we can talk about cells:

"By the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visable World discovered to the understanding."--Robert Hooke

“By the help of Microscopes, there is nothing so small, as to escape our inquiry; hence there is a new visible World discovered to the understanding.”–Robert Hooke

Just imagine the sense of amazement and wonder that resulted from this discovery. Even centuries after Hooke’s observation, its ripples–or muses–were felt well into the 20th century. The following images are examples of art drawing inspiration from science. For Hooke, art was a tool: drawings had to be made of his observations. Many artists followed this tradition and produced true works of art that delight and teach at the same time. These pieces can be seen on textbooks and academic journals. But this being The Hypertextual Lounge, we can see the cell in the context of fine art:

Terry Winters, Double Gravity. This piece resembles embryonic cells at different stages of development.

Terry Winters, Double Gravity. This piece resembles embryonic cells at different stages of development.

Wassily Kandinsky, Succession. Notice the emergent quality of the shapes--which resemble bacteria and organelles--, reminiscent of evolution.

Wassily Kandinsky, Succession. Notice the emergent quality of the shapes–which resemble bacteria and organelles–, reminiscent of evolution.

Max Ernst, The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending. This piece clearly suggest cell morphology.

Max Ernst, The Gramineous Bicycle Garnished with Bells the Dappled Fire Damps and the Echinoderms Bending.
This piece clearly suggest cell morphology.

Activity — Enrichment of knowledge: Google the following concepts. These may be helpful when commenting on this blog post: ‘biomorphism’, ‘cell theory’, ’17th century textile industry’.

Primary source: If you wold like to know more about the cross-disciplinary aspects of cell biology and art, you can click here: Images of the Cell in 20th Century Art and Science. This information may also prove useful when commenting on this blog post.