For the Sake of Science

You know that old story about how if you put a frog in a pot of water and bring it to a boil slowly enough it will just sit there, eventually dying? It’s true. But not really. The person who initially did this experiment back in the 19th century, Friedrich Goltz, had a habit of testing what happened to animals when he removed their brains. He didn’t break this habit when it came to his frog experiment. As one might expect, removing the brain of anything will tend to inhibit survival instincts and the ability to detect pain and danger; so his un-brained frogs did sit there and die. For frogs with their brains still in place, however, jumping out of a soon-to-be-boiling pot came swiftly enough.

Filed under: Misc | Tagged: Friedrich Goltz, Frogs, Fun fact of the day |