science experiment gone wrong

Subscribe or renew today

Every print subscription comes with full digital access

Science News

These are science’s top 10 erroneous results.

Mistakes from the past demonstrate the reliability of science

By Tom Siegfried

Contributing Correspondent

November 10, 2020 at 6:00 am

Astronomers viewing supernova 1987A, pictured here, thought they saw a signal from a rapidly spinning neutron star too bizarre to comprehend. But the signal turned out to come from a quirk in the electronics of a camera used to aim the telescope.

Share this:

To err is human, which is really not a very good excuse.

And to err as a scientist is worse, of course, because depending on science is supposed to be the best way for people to make sure they’re right. But since scientists are human (most of them, anyway), even science is never free from error. In fact, mistakes are fairly common in science, and most scientists tell you they wouldn’t have it any other way. That’s because making mistakes is often the best path to progress. An erroneous experiment may inspire further experiments that not only correct the original error, but also identify new previously unsuspected truths.

Still, sometimes science’s errors can be rather embarrassing. Recently much hype accompanied a scientific report about the possibility of life on Venus. But instant replay review has now raised some serious concerns about that report’s conclusion. Evidence for the gas phosphine, a chemical that supposedly could be created only by life (either microbes or well-trained human chemists), has started to look a little shaky. ( See the story by well-trained Science News reporter Lisa Grossman.)

While the final verdict on phosphine remains to be rendered, it’s a good time to recall some of science’s other famous errors. We’re not talking about fraud here, or just bad ideas that were worth floating but flopped instead, or initial false positives due to statistical randomness. Rather, let’s just list the Top 10 erroneous scientific conclusions that got a lot of attention before ultimately getting refuted. (With one exception, there will be no names, for the purpose here is not to shame.)

10.  A weird form of life

A report in 2010 claimed that a weird form of life incorporates arsenic in place of phosphorus in biological molecules. This one sounded rather suspicious, but the evidence, at first glance, looked pretty good. Not so good at second glance , though. And arsenic-based life never made it into the textbooks.

9. A weird form of water

In the 1960s, Soviet scientists contended that they had produced a new form of water. Ordinary water flushed through narrow tubes became denser and thicker, boiled at higher than normal temperatures and froze at much lower temperatures than usual. It seemed that the water molecules must have been coagulating in some way to produce “polywater.” By the end of the 1960s chemists around the world had begun vigorously pursuing polywater experiments. Soon those experiments showed that polywater’s properties came about from the presence of impurities in ordinary water.

Sign Up For the Latest from Science News

Headlines and summaries of the latest Science News articles, delivered to your inbox

Thank you for signing up!

There was a problem signing you up.

8. Neutrinos, faster than light

Neutrinos are weird little flyweight subatomic particles that zip through space faster than Usain Bolt on PEDs. But not as fast as scientists claimed in 2011, when they timed how long it took neutrinos to fly from the CERN atom smasher near Geneva to a detector in Italy. Initial reports found that the neutrinos arrived 60 nanoseconds sooner than a beam of light would. Faster-than-light neutrinos grabbed some headlines, evoked disbelief from most physicists and induced Einstein to turn over in his grave. But sanity was restored in 2012 , when the research team realized that a loose electrical cable knocked the experiment’s clocks out of sync, explaining the error.

7. Gravitational waves from the early universe

All space is pervaded by microwave radiation, the leftover glow from the Big Bang that kicked the universe into action 13.8 billion years ago. A popular theory explaining details of the early universe —  called inflation — predicts the presence of blips in the microwave radiation caused by primordial gravitational waves from the earliest epochs of the universe.

In 2014, scientists reported finding precisely the signal expected, simultaneously verifying the existence of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein’s general theory of relativity and providing strong evidence favoring inflation. Suspiciously, though, the reported signal was much stronger than expected for most versions of inflation theory. Sure enough, the team’s analysis had not properly accounted for dust in space that skewed the data. Primordial gravitational waves remain undiscovered, though their more recent cousins, produced in cataclysmic events like black hole collisions, have been repeatedly detected in recent years .

6. A one-galaxy universe

In the early 20th century, astronomers vigorously disagreed on the distance from Earth of fuzzy cloudlike blobs shaped something like whirlpools (called spiral nebulae). Most astronomers believed the spiral nebulae resided within the Milky Way galaxy, at the time believed to comprise the entire universe. But a few experts insisted that the spirals were much more distant, themselves entire galaxies like the Milky Way, or “island universes.” Supposed evidence against the island universe idea came from measurements of internal motion in the spirals. It would be impossible to detect such motion if the spirals were actually way far away. But by 1924, Edwin Hubble established with certainty that at least sone of the spiral nebulae were in fact island universes, at vast distances from the Milky Way. Those measurements of internal motion were difficult to make — and they just turned out to be wrong.

5. A supernova’s superfast pulsar

Astronomers rejoiced in 1987 when a supernova appeared in the Large Magellanic Cloud, the closest such stellar explosion to Earth in centuries. Subsequent observations sought a signal from a pulsar, a spinning neutron star that should reside in the middle of the debris from some types of supernova explosions. But the possible pulsar remained hidden until January 1989, when a rapidly repeating radio signal indicated the presence of a superspinner left over from the supernova. It emitted radio beeps nearly 2,000 times a second — much faster than anybody expected (or could explain). But after one night of steady pulsing, the pulsar disappeared. Theorists raced to devise clever theories to explain the bizarre pulsar and what happened to it. Then in early 1990, telescope operators rotated a TV camera (used for guiding the telescope) back into service, and the signal showed up again — around a different supernova remnant. So the supposed signal was actually a quirk in the guide camera’s electronics — not a message from space.

4. A planet orbiting a pulsar

In 1991, astronomers reported the best case yet for the existence of a planet around a star other than the sun. In this case, the “star” was a pulsar, a spinning neutron star about 10,000 light-years from Earth. Variations in the timing of the pulsar’s radio pulses suggested the presence of a companion planet, orbiting its parent pulsar every six months. Soon, though, the astronomers realized that they had used an imprecise value for the pulsar’s position in the sky in such a way that the signal anomaly resulted not from a planet, but from the Earth’s motion around the sun.

3. Age of Earth

In the 1700s, French naturalist Georges-Louis Leclerc, Comte de Buffonestimated an Earth age of about 75,000 years, while acknowledging it might be much older. And geologists of the 19th century believe it to be older still — hundreds of millions of years or more — in order to account for the observation of layer after layer of Earth’s buried history. After 1860, Charles Darwin’s new theory of evolution also implied a very old Earth, to provide time for the diversity of species to evolve. But a supposedly definite ruling against such an old Earth came from a physicist who calculated how long it would take an originally molten planet to cool. He applied an age limit of about 100 million years, and later suggested that the actual age might even be much less than that. His calculations were in error, however — not because he was bad at math, but because he didn’t know about radioactivity.

Radioactive decay of elements in the Earth added a lot of heat into the mix, prolonging the cooling time. Eventually estimates of the Earth’s age based on rates of radioactive decay ( especially in meteorites that formed around the same time as the Earth) provided the correct current age estimate of 4.5 billion years or so.

2. Age of the universe

When astronomers first discovered that the universe was expanding, at the end of the 1920s, it was natural to ask how long it had been expanding. By measuring the current expansion rate and extrapolating backward, they found that the universe must be less than 2 billion years old. Yet radioactivity measurements had already established the Earth to be much older, and it was very doubtful (as in impossibly ridiculous) that the universe could be younger than the Earth. Those early calculations of the universe’s expansion, however, had been based on distance measurements relying on Cepheid variable stars.

Astronomers calculated the Cepheids’ distances based on how rapidly their brightness fluctuated, which in turn depended on their intrinsic brightness. Comparing intrinsic brightness to apparent brightness provided a Cepheid’s distance, just as you can gauge the distance of a lightbulb if you know its wattage (oh yes, and what kind of lightbulb it is). It turned out, though, that just like lightbulbs, there is more than one kind of Cepheid variable , contaminating the expansion rate calculations. Nowadays converging methods give an age of the universe of 13.8 billion years, making the Earth a relative newcomer to the cosmos.

1. Earth in the middle

OK, we’re going to name and blame Aristotle for this one. He wasn’t the first to say that the Earth occupies the center of the universe, but he was the most dogmatic about it, and believed he had established it to be incontrovertibly true — by using logic. He insisted that the Earth must be in the middle because earth (the element) always sought to move toward its “natural place,” the center of the cosmos. Even though Aristotle invented formal logic, he apparently did not notice a certain amount of circularity in his argument. It took a while, but in 1543 Copernicus made a strong case for Aristotle being mistaken. And then in 1610 Galileo’s observation that Venus went through a full set of phases sealed the case for a sun-centered solar system.

Now, it would be nice if there were a lesson in this list of errors that might help scientists do better in the future. But the whole history of science shows that such errors are actually unavoidable. There is a lesson, though, based on what the mistakes on this list have in common: They’re all on a list of errors now known to be errors. Science, unlike certain political philosophies and personality cults, corrects its mistakes. That’s the lesson, and that’s why respecting science is so important to avoiding errors in other realms of life.

More Stories from Science News on Science & Society

Fire-prone neighborhoods on the fringes of nature are rapidly expanding

Exploiting a genetic quirk in potatoes may cut fertilizer needs

The ‘midlife crisis’ is too simple a story, scientists say

This marine biologist discovered a unique blue whale population in Sri Lanka

Using AI, historians track how astronomy ideas spread in the 16th century

A race to save Indigenous trails may change the face of archaeology

Drop in vaping drives tobacco product use by U.S. youth to a record low

The U.S. empire was built on bird dung

Subscribers, enter your e-mail address for full access to the Science News archives and digital editions.

Not a subscriber? Become one now .

More than 160 students, teachers nationwide hurt in science experiments gone wrong

by JOCE STERMAN, ALEX BRAUER and ANDREA NEJMAN, Sinclair Broadcast Group

WASHINGTON (SBG) — As many students return to in-person learning, experts are warning about a danger they could face in the classroom: not COVID-19 , but a phenomenon known as flame jetting. It's already injured dozens of students and teachers across the nation in classroom science experiments gone terribly wrong.

Spotlight on America got a firsthand look at the phenomenon known as flame jetting from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives , going behind the scenes at the agency's Fire Research Laboratory in Maryland. As trained and equipped representatives from the ATF demonstrated, the phenomenon can turn a flammable liquid inside a container into a flame thrower, creating a wall of fire that shoots forward with an intense force, torching anything in its path.

According to Jonathan Butta with the ATF, it can happen when alcohols, especially methanol, are used in demonstrations involving an open flame. While the idea is to liven up classroom experiments and give a real-life application to a chemical concept, the results can be tragic. Butta explained, "It essentially turns a typical flammable liquid container into a flamethrower."

"We actually see the flame front propagate up the stream of flammable liquid into that container and expand those vapors and shoot those liquid droplets out with it," said Jonathan Butta with the ATF.

Dozens of students across the country have actually seen flame jetting in action, with tragic consequences. W.T. Woodson High School in Virginia is just one example.

In 2015, a demonstration known as the "Rainbow Experiment" designed to show how burning different salts results in different colors, went wrong at the school. Experts say flame jetting occurred during the experiment, with the tragic outcome detailed in stunning photos . The incident left a classroom at Woodson High School charred and five students injured, including two who had to be airlifted to the hospital with serious burns. Just weeks after the incident, Nick Dache exclusively told our affiliate WJLA , "I think the whole thing was just a freak accident."

Dache actually stepped in to assist one of the students who was burned during the incident. As the young woman ran out of the classroom still on fire, Dache explained he chased her down and used his hands to scuff out the flames on her shirt.

"It almost looked like a blanket. Someone else described it as a fireball," student Nick Dache said of the aftermath of the Rainbow Experiment gone wrong in 2015. "I don't think that's completely accurate because that seems more violent. It got very widespread but it didn't seem super concentrated."

A similar flame jetting incident happened in Ohio in 2006, when student Calais Weber Biery was burned over 40 percent of her body during an experiment in her school's chemistry lab. She's featured in a 2013 Youtube video produced by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board called "After the Rainbow." The video, the organization said, was created in an effort to help prevent classroom accidents in chemistry labs.

"I remember thinking, 'I'm on fire, oh my gosh, I'm on fire,'" student Calais Weber Biery recalled in a Youtube video about the dangers of the Rainbow Experiment. "It's tragic and it shouldn't happen."

Spotlight on America has learned those two incidents are far from isolated. A 2018 study published in the Journal of Chemical Education , an arm of the American Chemical Society , found 164 children and teachers have been injured in classroom demonstrations using flammable solvents since 1988. Additionally, we discovered at least three additional incidents last year alone. Experiments where students and teachers have been injured have happened in the following states:

• North Carolina
• Pennsylvania

The real number of classroom accidents could actually be much higher because Spotlight on America has learned there's no requirement to report accidents to the US Chemical Safety Board , which along with the ACS, has done tremendous outreach, trying to improve experiment safety. In 2015, Kristen Kulinowski, a former member of the USCSB, talked with our affiliate WJLA about the number of accidents in classroom labs, calling them a significant problem. She said, "All of these incidents could have been prevented."

Courts in at least four states including Georgia, Florida, New York and Ohio have agreed, handing over millions in cases filed by students injured in fiery classroom experiments. In one of those cases , nearly $60 million was awarded to a high school student in New York who was badly burned and left with permanent scarring on much of his body as a result of an experiment gone wrong. The award was appealed but just this summer a judge upheld the jury's decision.

For years, some safety advocates have called for banning experiments involving flammable solvents and open flames altogether, while others have lobbied for mandating specific safety protocols to protect students in the classroom. For its part, the ACS has dedicated an entire section of its website to provide resources for educators on how to safely conduct demonstrations and experiments in the classroom. Their efforts even include showing teachers a safe, alternative way to conduct the Rainbow Experiment without putting students at risk.

Teacher Burns Student, Ending Two-Year Lull in School Science Accidents

by Connor Michael | Apr 27, 2022 | Lab Safety

One silver lining of the pandemic was that since many school labs were closed, the science-experiment-gone-wrong stories also went on hiatus. For two straight years, there were no reported accidents from teacher-led classroom demonstrations—just a few stories of kids doing dangerous things on their own on TikTok and YouTube.

But that lull came to an end on April 1, 2022, when a middle school teacher in Granbury, Texas, put hand sanitizer on a 12-year-old student's hands and then lit them on fire, leaving the student with third-degree burns. The teacher has since resigned, and the district attorney is deciding whether to seek criminal charges.

“Putting a flammable substance on bare hands and igniting it is not a science experiment. It's just stupid,” an angry parent wrote online. Predictably, school officials claimed the same thing had been done many times before, even that day, without incident.

Online commenters lamented the lack of safety training requirements for teachers—as well as the fundamental lack of basic science education requirements—in most states. Currently in Texas, middle schools can hire teachers who have completed only one introductory science course in college.

Apparently, the hand sanitizer “experiment” was not part of the lesson plan and did not involve administrative review or a thorough risk analysis. Sources told CBS that the incident happened after a class finished a test early and the teacher simply asked students if they wanted to see something “cool.” No one was wearing personal protective equipment.

Due to the obvious risk and liability involved, the light-a-student-on-fire experiment is not to be found in any official science curriculum guides for teachers. However, a quick internet search turns up dozens of videos of people setting their hands on fire with alcohol sanitizer. In a similar incident in 2014, a 23-year-old teacher in Indiana admitted that the idea of lighting students’ hands on fire originated from a YouTube video. That teacher was charged with neglect of a dependent resulting in bodily injury and criminal recklessness.

“Teachers are always looking for ways to make learning more fun and get kids hyped for their lessons, but if your experiment involves setting a kid on fire ... there are too many things that can go wrong,” said a post on the website of the Texas news radio station KTEM.

Some hazards that can be overlooked include additional ingredients present in some sanitizers, such as glycerin and aloe, which stick to the skin and make the fuel mixture burn hotter and longer, similar to napalm. Also, student (or teacher) behavior cannot always be predicted, which creates additional risks.

If the purpose was simply to show that alcohol burns fast, there are hundreds of safer ways to make that point. The American Chemical Society and other major science and education organizations have collaborated to provide teachers with resources for safer demonstrations and activities in the classroom:

https://institute.acs.org/lab-safety/education-and-training/high-school-labs.html

Additionally, the Laboratory Safety Institute offers scholarships of up to $800 for safety education programs, exclusively for K-12 teachers, as well as presentations on safer science demonstrations for interested teacher groups.

The Repeating Rainbow

In a science class in Ohio in 2006, 15-year-old Calais Weber received third-degree burns on 48% of her body when her teacher attempted a “rainbow experiment,” which uses methanol to light various metallic salts to produce different-colored flames. To prevent similar tragedies in science classrooms, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board released a video about the incident called “After the Rainbow” in 2013. Less than a month after that video was released, 16-year-old Alonzo Yanes received disfiguring burns when a teacher in New York attempted the same experiment.

Is making kids say "wow, cool colors" worth all the risk?

Four years later, when filmmaker Christina Kallas produced “The Rainbow Experiment,” an independent film with events that closely mirrored the New York incident, history couldn’t stop repeating itself. Fewer than four months after the film debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, and despite a safety alert sent to all science teachers in the United States from the American Chemical Society, a teacher in Tennessee decided to perform the rainbow demonstration again—with the same lack of safety protocols. This time, 17 students were hurt.

All totaled, 164 teachers and students have been injured in classroom demonstrations using flammable solvents from 1988 to 2018, according to a study published by the American Chemical Society. LSI’s founder, Jim Kaufman, has served as an expert witness in dozens of these cases since 1978.

To keep the cycle from repeating again, the rainbow experiment is now banned in New York and by several school districts nationwide. There are safer alternatives to this demonstration, as outlined in the brochure “ Rainbow Flame Demonstration Guidelines,” available free from the Laboratory Safety Institute.

Update: On May 17, 2022, a student was seriously burned in a science demonstration in Indiana. From initial reports, it seems this was yet another case of the same experiment. The rainbow strikes again.

Privacy Overview

Science Experiment Gone Wrong Sends 18 Students, Teacher to Tennessee Hospital

Officials say a science experiment gone wrong at a Tennessee elementary school sent 18 students and a teacher to the hospital

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — A science experiment gone wrong at a Tennessee elementary school sent 18 students and a teacher to the hospital on Friday, officials said.

The third-graders at Vena Stuart Elementary in Gallatin were conducting science experiments with an outside presenter and several said they began feeling sick after an experiment with dry ice, news outlets reported, citing a statement from Sumner County Schools.

Several children became nauseous and school administrators called emergency responders, who transported the students and teacher as a precaution, Sumner County Schools' Director Scott Langford said in a video posted to social media.

The school statement said everyone transported was in good condition and Langford said they were all released later in the day.

Fire crews also assessed and ventilated the room where the experiment took place.

Langford said officials were thankful for the quick response from school administration and first responders.

“They acted quickly and our students are safe,” he said.

Copyright 2024 The  Associated Press . All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

Join the Conversation

Tags: Associated Press , science , Tennessee , education

Related Articles

America 2024

Best States Rankings

• # 2 New Hampshire
• # 3 Nebraska
• # 4 Minnesota

Healthiest Communities

Your trusted source for in-depth analysis on the issues impacting your community’s well-being delivered right to your inbox.

Sign in to manage your newsletters »

Sign up to receive the latest updates from U.S News & World Report and our trusted partners and sponsors. By clicking submit, you are agreeing to our Terms and Conditions & Privacy Policy .

You May Also Like

The 10 best states in america.

Elliott Davis Jr. May 7, 2024

Why Utah Is the Best State

Elliott Davis Jr. and Julia Haines May 7, 2024

Why Florida Is No. 1 in Education

Tim Smart May 7, 2024

ACLU Asks Arizona Supreme Court to Extend 'Curing' Deadline After Vote-Count Delays

Associated Press Nov. 9, 2024

Trump Announces Golf Partner and Former Georgia Senator Will Co-Chair Inaugural Committee

California Gov. Newsom Fined Over Delays in Reporting Charitable Donations

FEMA: Worker Fired After Directing Workers to Avoid Helping Hurricane Survivors Who Supported Trump

Slower Winds Aid Firefighters Battling Destructive Blaze in California

Man Charged With Murder in Fatal Shooting of 2 Workers at Chicago's Navy Pier

Actor Tony Todd, Known for His Role in the Movie 'Candyman' and Other Films, Dies at 69

Best States

• Today's news
• Reviews and deals
• Climate change
• 2024 election
• Newsletters
• Fall allergies
• Health news
• Mental health
• Sexual health
• Family health
• So mini ways
• Unapologetically
• Buying guides

Entertainment

• How to Watch
• My watchlist
• Stock market
• Biden economy
• Personal finance
• Stocks: most active
• Stocks: gainers
• Stocks: losers
• Trending tickers
• World indices
• US Treasury bonds
• Top mutual funds
• Highest open interest
• Highest implied volatility
• Currency converter
• Basic materials
• Communication services
• Consumer cyclical
• Consumer defensive
• Financial services
• Industrials
• Real estate
• Mutual funds
• Credit cards
• Balance transfer cards
• Cash back cards
• Rewards cards
• Travel cards
• Online checking
• High-yield savings
• Money market
• Home equity loan
• Personal loans
• Student loans
• Options pit
• Fantasy football
• Pro Pick 'Em
• College Pick 'Em
• Fantasy baseball
• Fantasy hockey
• Fantasy basketball
• Download the app
• Daily fantasy
• Scores and schedules
• GameChannel
• World Baseball Classic
• Premier League
• CONCACAF League
• Champions League
• Motorsports
• Horse racing

New on Yahoo

• Privacy Dashboard

Top Stories

• Trump chief of staff
• 4B movement to boycott men
• Trump victory and SCOTUS
• Trump assassination plot
• Racist text messages
• House election results
• Mountain Fire
• What Trump will do first
• Project 2025
• Kate Middleton health update

Science experiment gone wrong sends 18 students, teacher to Tennessee hospital

GALLATIN, Tenn. (AP) — A science experiment gone wrong at a Tennessee elementary school sent 18 students and a teacher to the hospital on Friday, officials said.

The third-graders at Vena Stuart Elementary in Gallatin were conducting science experiments with an outside presenter and several said they began feeling sick after an experiment with dry ice, news outlets reported, citing a statement from Sumner County Schools.

Several children became nauseous and school administrators called emergency responders, who transported the students and teacher as a precaution, Sumner County Schools' Director Scott Langford said in a video posted to social media.

The school statement said everyone transported was in good condition and Langford said they were all released later in the day.

Fire crews also assessed and ventilated the room where the experiment took place.

Langford said officials were thankful for the quick response from school administration and first responders.

“They acted quickly and our students are safe,” he said.

Recommended Stories

Jay powell says donald trump couldn't fire him even if he tried.

President-elect Donald Trump has sent mixed signals for years on whether he would fire or demote Jerome Powell. But Powell made it clear Thursday that he won’t be going anywhere even if Trump tried.

The progressive dream is dead

Democrats' liberal wing has wrecked the party, and the nation suffers for it.

Here’s how often you should actually be washing your hair, according to experts

There are a lot of myths out there when it comes to washing your hair. It's time to set the record straight.

DJT stock sinks by double digits to reverse gains after Trump election win

Trump Media & Technology Group stock reversed the gains it enjoyed on Wednesday as Donald Trump clinched victory over Kamala Harris in the presidential election.

3 moves Biden could make as a lame-duck president

Biden might want to crimp Iranian and Russian oil revenue once he doesn't have to worry so much about gasoline prices at home.

MLB GM Meetings: Latest buzz on Juan Soto, Roki Sasaki, Teoscar Hernández and more

The GM Meetings kicked off the hot stove season this week in San Antonio.

Live updates: Here are the latest House election results

Control of the U.S. House of Representatives is still up for grabs.

College football winners and losers: What we think the first College Football Playoff bracket of 2024 will look like

The first set of rankings for the inaugural 12-team playoff will be released on Tuesday.

Kate Spade is selling a ‘beautiful’ $360 tote bag for just $78

Save nearly $300 on this timeless tote that can hold everything and more, like all of your crumpled receipts.

Silicon Valley venture capitalists react to Trump's victory: 'Buckle up'

Donald Trump's reelection as US president will have significant impact on tech and beyond.

Mortgage and refinance rates today, November 8, 2024: Rates surpass the 52-week average

These are today's mortgage and refinance rates. Rates are up, but if you're set on buying in 2024, now may be as good a time as any. Lock in your rate today.

Controversial taunting call sets up go-ahead first-half TD in No. 4 Ohio State's win over No. 3 Penn State

PSU's Elliot Washington II was called for taunting after stepping over OSU's Carnell Tate.

Generation X is gloomy, but their retirement reality may not bite

A new report finds things may be on the upswing for those born between 1965 and 1980 — even if they refuse to believe it.

Vanderbilt QB Diego Pavia sues NCAA in effort to add another year of eligibility

Hugh Freeze might not be out of the woods yet.

Lisa Rinna shares the $19 Walmart coat everyone needs this season: 'It's so good'

Shop the trendy faux leather jacket, the star's favorite smiley face slippers and more 'fashion-forward' items at the mega-retailer.

Kyle Richards says these slip-on shoes are 'literally like walking on a cloud'

Great for dashing around town or bumming around the house, they have a memory foam insole for maximum comfort on just about any surface.

Here's what Trump said he'll do immediately once he becomes president

President-elect Donald Trump has laid out an ambitious agenda that he has promised will go into effect on Jan. 20, the day he will be sworn into office for his second term.

Men's college basketball opening night winners and losers: Gonzaga makes early statement

While Gonzaga and UCF shined and Cooper Flagg got off to a strong start, the SEC stumbled out of the starting blocks.

Lucid Motors starts taking orders for its existential Gravity SUV

Lucid Motors has officially started taking orders for its electric Gravity SUV, a critically important vehicle that's supposed to go into production by the end of this year. Interested buyers can now place $1,000 refundable deposits on the "Grand Touring" trim, which starts at $94,900, on the company's website. Similar to the company's current model, the Air sedan, the Gravity is a more-than-capable electric vehicle.

Roki Sasaki MLB free agency: One remaining decision could signal if Japanese phenom is targeting the Dodgers

Here's why every MLB team wants Roki Sasaki to be posted after Dec. 1.

• Nation & World

Science experiment gone wrong injures 18 at Tennessee school

Share story.

HENDERSONVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Authorities say a science experiment gone awry has injured 17 students and a teacher, prompting the evacuation of a Tennessee school.

Hendersonville Fire Department Chief Scotty Bush tells news outlets that emergency crews responded to a chemical explosion inside a high school lab at Merrol Hyde Magnet School on Wednesday morning. Bush says the unintentional chemical reaction caused a flash fire that lasted three to five seconds.

Eight students and a teacher were hospitalized with what Bush said were second-degree burns. The other injured students were treated at the scene.

Bush says the teacher and school staff acted appropriately by swiftly extinguishing the fire and evacuating the school.

Most Read Nation & World Stories

• Revising the rules of engagement, court says jilted bride must give back $70,000 ring
• A WA red-district conqueror wants fellow Democrats to look in the mirror
• Don’t throw out expired COVID-19 tests, FDA says
• Sports on TV & radio: Local listings for Seattle games and events
• Trump put Musk on phone with Zelenskyy during call

All three schools on campus were dismissed early.

Two kids stable in hospital after being burned by science experiment gone wrong

An update has been provided on the condition of two 10-year-old students who were seriously burned in a school science experiment.

Two 10-year-olds remain in hospital – but in a stable condition – after burning foam sprayed onto their chests when a science experiment exploded at a Sydney primary school.

Eight ambulances and two helicopters, one with a specialist medical team on-board, rushed to the incident at Manly West Public School in Balgowlah about 1pm on Monday.

Eleven children aged around 10 years old and one adult were impacted by the “Hazmat incident”, with reports it was caused by a science experiment gone wrong.

Just two children remain in hospital on Tuesday afternoon and both are in a stable condition.

It’s understood the incident occurred during a “black worm” experiment that involves mixing bicarbonate of soda, icing sugar and methylated spirits together.

A boy and a girl received serious burns when the experiment was whipped out of control by a gust of wind that sprayed burning foam onto the children’s faces and chests, The Daily Telegraph reported.

NSW Ambulance said Monday’s high winds were partially to blame for the experiment gone wrong for the year 5 class.

“We received multiple triple-0 calls reporting that a number of children had sustained burns during a science experiment, which was being conducted outside,” NSW Ambulance Acting Superintendent Phil Templeman said.

“Today’s high winds have impacted the experiment and blown some of the materials around.”

The most seriously injured child, a young girl, suffered multiple burns to her body and was flown to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead in a stable condition after receiving treatment from CareFlight’s specialist doctor and a NSW Ambulance critical care paramedic.

Another was taken to the same hospital in an ambulance, with a specialist medical team treating serious burns.

Five children were taken to Royal North Shore Hospital and four were taken to Northern Beaches Hospital with superficial burns.

The adult patient was taken to Northern Beaches Hospital in a stable condition.

NSW Ambulance said the incident required a “huge response” from paramedics.

“The children have sustained burns to the upper body, chest, face and legs; thankfully, the majority of the students were not badly injured,” Mr Templeman said.

NSW Education Minister Sarah Mitchell offered support from the state government in the wake of the incident.

“My thoughts are with the students and staff affected by today’s incident at Manly West Public School,” Ms Mitchell said.

“I have spoken with the principal this afternoon to offer my support to the entire school community, and I want to particularly thank and acknowledge all of the school staff who acted so quickly to provide first aid and call emergency services.

“We will provide whatever resources the school community needs in the coming days, including counselling for students and staff.

“Investigations into the incident will be undertaken by the relevant authorities, including the Department of Education and NSW Police. In addition, SafeWork NSW has been notified and they will carry out their own investigation in due course.”

Wellbeing support is being provided to impacted students and staff.

Boy’s lucky escape from deadly snake bite

A two-year-old boy was playing in his backyard when he realised he’d been bitten by a deadly snake.

Cassius, world’s longest crocodile dies

The 5m saltwater crocodile, thought to be more than 110 years old and weighing more than a tonne, is remembered as being a “beloved mate”.

‘Hidden in plain sight’: Pics reveal lost city

Stunned archaeologists have “accidentally” located thousands of never-before-seen structures as well as an enormous ancient city.

15 Science Experiments With (Great) Unintended Consequences

You’d be surprised at how often science meets serendipity. Without happy lab accidents, we might never have discovered phosphorous or penicillin. Moreover, once an experiment’s been conducted, not even the most prescient of researchers can foresee its every impact. Who could’ve predicted, for instance, that a kerosene test would help out sperm whales? Necessity may be the mother of invention, but—as we’ll see—Lady Luck often guides the way.

1. THE GOAL: SYNTHETIC RUBBER // THE RESULT: AMERICA’S FAVORITE TOY

In World War II, the allied forces were handicapped by a severe rubber shortage. By occupying a swath of rubber-producing countries in southeast Asia, Japan had put a stranglehold on the commodity. For Britain and America, this was a serious blow. Without rubber, it would be impossible to equip their troops with such vital supplies as truck tires or gas masks. Enter an American engineer based in New Haven, Connecticut, who tried to produce a cheap, synthetic rubber. He conducted several experiments, but ultimately failed in his quest. However, one day in 1943, he made a surprising discovery. Upon mixing boric acid with silicone oil, he (accidentally) invented a magic putty that could bounce, shatter, stretch, and—when applied to a newspaper—copy the print in reverse. Thus, one of the nation’s most popular toys ever was born.

2. THE GOAL: A CURE FOR MALARIA // THE RESULT: SYNTHETIC DYE, SNAIL-SAVER

William Perkin set out to fight malaria. Instead, he revolutionized the clothing industry. During his youth, malaria was ravaging Britain’s colonies. The only known remedy was quinine—a compound found in the bark of South American trees, which was very expensive to harvest. So in 1856, Perkin (a student enrolled at London’s College of Chemistry) took a stab at developing man-made quinine. After some dead-end experiments, he tinkered with a coal byproduct called aniline. The result was a thick sludge that stained his clothes purple—or “mauve” as he called it.  Just like that, the first synthetic dye was created. In doing so, he may have inadvertently rescued a certain mollusk from the brink of extinction. Previously, the most common way to get purple dye was by boiling the marine snail Bolinus brandaris alive. By comparison, Perkins’ goo was both cheaper and more resilient, killing all demand for that snail-based stuff.  

3. THE GOAL: SETTLE A DEBATE // THE RESULT: MOTION PICTURES

A photographer by trade, Eadweard Muybridge definitively answered an age-old scientific question. For centuries, people wondered if galloping horses take all four hooves off the ground in mid-stride. Muybridge was asked to settle this debate by one of his customers, California governor Leland Stanford. In May 1878, he set up 24 cameras along a SoCal racetrack. Each was equipped with a special tripwire. At Muybridge’s command, a mare named Sallie Gardner and her rider galloped in front of the lenses, setting off the tripwires in succession as they went. The resultant series of 24 images proved—once and for all—that horses do indeed break contact with the earth as they run. But Muybridge wasn’t finished yet. Not by a long shot. He went on to produce over 700 other motion studies, capturing everything from how pigeons fly to how a javelin is thrown. In the process, he helped beget a new art form: Historians credit Muybridge with inspiring some of the very first movie projectors and cameras.

4. THE GOAL: EXPERIMENT WITH HYDROGEN // THE RESULT: ESSENTIAL PARTY DECOR

Michael Faraday rose from abject poverty to invent the first electric motor—and the first electric generator. He also discovered benzene, popularized the word “ion,” and correctly guessed that light is an electromagnetic phenomenon. Not a bad resume.  In 1824, Faraday also built the first rubber balloons to help him carry out some experiments with hydrogen. The very next year, manufacturer Thomas Hancock started selling these as toys. By the 1930s, they’d become a staple at parties on both sides of the Atlantic. No doubt Faraday would’ve appreciated their rise in popularity.

5. THE GOAL: PROVE THAT GASES COULD BE LIQUIFIED // THE RESULT: REFRIGERANTS

In 1823, Faraday took a v-shaped glass tube and filled it with chlorine hydrate. He then simultaneously heated one side while cooling the other, in an attempt to prove the theory that gases could be liquefied if introduced to low temperatures or high pressures. After a while, he noticed a peculiar liquid at the bottom of his container. Ever inquisitive, Faraday gently cracked open the tube. What followed was a sudden, forceful blast that sent glass shards every which way. In the aftermath, Faraday learned two things. For starters, internal pressure must have converted his chlorine hydrate into a liquid. Also, the explosion had somehow cooled down the air around him. Without meaning to, he’d just planted the seeds for the technology behind today’s iceboxes, freezers, and refrigerators.

6. THE GOAL: EXPERIMENT WITH GLASS // THE RESULT: YOUR STOVETOP

A temperature snafu was arguably the best thing that ever happened to one New York-based chemist in 1953. While tinkering with some photosensitive glass, the scientist placed a sample into a furnace and set it to 600°C—or so he thought. Then he took a breather. “When I came back, the temperature gauge was stuck on 900 degrees and I thought I’d wrecked the furnace,” he later recalled. Immediately, he pulled out the glass, which had somehow turned milky white and rock-hard. Lo and behold, his blooper created the world’s first glass-ceramic, which has since been used in everything from glass stovetops to the noses of guided missiles.

7. THE GOAL: WEIGH THE EARTH // THE RESULT: A CRUCIAL MAPMAKING TOOL

Science doesn’t get much more ambitious than this. In 1774, British astronomer Nevil Maskelyne set out to calculate the mass of our home planet. How could he possibly pull that off? Maskelyne’s strategy was two-fold. First, he determined the exact percentage of the earth’s surface that’s covered by the Schiehallion mountain in central Scotland. Afterwards, his team spent 17 arduous weeks measuring Schiehallion’s every slope and cranny. This allowed Maskelyne to estimate the mountain’s mass—and, from there, the world’s. For the record, he concluded that earth has a mass of 4.5 x 1024 kilograms. Modern science puts that number at 5.98 x 1024 kilograms. Pretty amazing, isn’t it? Maskelyne’s right-hand man was mathematician Charles Hutton. To help their crew go about the whole mountain-measuring business, Hutton invented “contour lines.” A series of concentric circles, these connect points of equal elevation on maps. Over 200 years later, cartographers are still using them.

8. THE GOAL: SAFER REFRIGERANTS // THE RESULT: NONSTICK COOKWARE

In 1938, a recently-graduated chemistry Ph.D. was tasked with finding alternatives to sulfur dioxide and ammonia—two commonly-used refrigerants that had been poisoning people. Believing that tetrafluoroethylene gas (TFE) might be the answer, the researcher created 100 pounds’ worth. This was stored in tiny containers at very low temperatures. Imagine his shock when he discovered that his precious gas had been transformed into a waxy white substance. However, the goo did have a few desirable qualities. Whatever this material was, it was both slippery and heat-resistant. Excited about its potential, he spent the next few years developing his product. In 1944, it hit the market as a nonstick coating that’s revolutionized pots and pans.

9. THE GOAL: LIGHT THE WAY // THE RESULT: SPARE THOUSANDS OF SPERM WHALES

Earth’s third-largest mammal is so named because of a strange, milky substance that’s found only in their skulls. Formally referred to as “spermaceti,” its biological function has always been a mystery. Nonetheless, human beings have found a use for it. Throughout the 18th and early 19th centuries, spermaceti-powered lamps were used all over the industrialized world. Sadly, lust for this commodity took a serious toll on the animals that produced it. Between 1801 and 1900, approximately 236,000 sperm whales were slaughtered. Yet, in 1849, the tide started turning. That pivotal year, Canadian geologist Abraham Gesner devised a way to distill kerosene from petroleum. Cheaper and longer-lasting than spermaceti, kerosene-based lamp fuels more or less killed off the sperm whale industry.

10. THE GOAL: STUDY A BACTERIA // THE RESULT: A GAME-CHANGING CURE

“I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the first antibiotic, or bacteria killer,” Alexander Fleming would later say. “But that was exactly what I did.” In September 1928, he was the resident bacteriologist at St. Mary’s Hospital in London. For several weeks, Fleming observed cultures of the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Then he took a vacation. Upon his return, he was startled to find that some of his petri dishes had been infected by a fungus known as Penicillium notatum . Intriguingly, this organism effectively stunted the bacteria’s growth. Fleming’s chance discovery gave drive to penicillin—a drug that’s saved an estimated 200 million lives.

11. THE GOAL: IMPROVE WEAPONS, PROTECT PLANES // THE RESULT: SUPER GLUE

In the midst of World War II, an American chemist was asked to build a new plastic sight for Allied military rifles. Towards this end, he played around with many different compounds. One of these was a sticky material called cyanoacrylate. After a brief test period, the chemist forgot all about this tenacious goop. Fast-forward to 1951. That year, the scientist was trying to create a heat-resistant coating for jet plane windshields. Once again, he tried experimenting with cyanoacrylate. And, once again, his efforts didn’t help the cause. But this time, he advised his bosses to sell this substance as a commercial adhesive, and thus, super glue was born.

13.  THE GOAL: MAKE TIRES TOUGHER // THE RESULT: BULLETPROOF VESTS

In 1965, a chemist, who had spent years trying to produce a super-tough fiber that could be used in tires, created what looked like an unassuming liquid polymer. But things got interesting when she found that it could be used to make fibers that were five times stronger than steel. The substance she created has since become a vital component in today’s bulletproof vests.

14. THE GOAL: TURN PEE INTO GOLD (REALLY) // THE RESULT: DISCOVER AN ELEMENT

Nobody knows how many jars of urine were kept in Henning Brand’s basement. By some accounts, the German alchemist may’ve had as much as 1500 gallons’ worth down there. Why did he gather so much pee? Believe it or not, this was a get-rich scheme—or so he thought. Brand was convinced that, by distilling human urine, he could somehow create gold. Over a 6-year period, the eccentric went out and gathered samples whenever (and from whomever) he could. Needless to say, Brand’s hypothesis was incorrect. Still, in 1669, he did make one huge scientific breakthrough.  After boiling some of his collection, he noticed a weird, glowing liquid at the bottom of the vial. Unbeknownst to Brand, he’d just discovered phosphorous.

15.  THE GOAL: KEEP FRUIT FRESHER // THE RESULT: SAVE THE BATS?

A global bat epidemic, White Nose Syndrome has killed an estimated 5.7 million of the mammals worldwide. The cause is a Eurasian fungus known as Pseudogymnoascus destructans . When that organism infects a flying mammal, it seriously dehydrates the poor creature. Afflicted bats are then forced to wake up from their hibernation prematurely and often, and in doing so, burn up precious fat preserves. Famished, most victims starve to death while looking for food. Luckily though, a cure may soon be on the way. In 2012, a team from a Georgia-based university started experimenting with the common bacteria Rhodococcus rhodochrous . “Originally, we were investigating [it] for various industrial activities,” the lead researcher has explained. The group discovered that this single-celled life form stunts the growth of rot-inducing fungi in bananas. Thus, R. rhodochrous can keep fruits ripe over extended periods. And that’s not all. The team wondered if the bacterium would have a similar effect on the fungus behind WNS. So they rounded up hundreds of infected bats and exposed them to R. rhodochrous . Those that received “treatment” were then allowed to hibernate. Months later, the bats were examined—and the results were quite promising. Every single test bat had—at least partially—recovered. One day, this breakthrough could help us vanquish WNS altogether. If it does, bats will be forever indebted to—of all things—bananas. Isn’t science great?

• Search Please fill out this field.
• Manage Your Subscription
• Give a Gift Subscription
• Newsletters
• Sweepstakes

• Human Interest
• Human Interest News
• Tragedy News

Student Burned in High School Science Experiment Says It Was 'Something Out of a Horror Movie'

Alonzo Yanes and his parents sued his teacher and the Dept. of Education, and was award $60 million in July

Nearly six years after a high school chemistry experiment went terribly wrong, one young man is opening up about an explosion that left him with burns on more than 30 percent of his body.

Alonzo Yanes recounted the horrifying experience to Inside Edition in an interview Thursday, saying that he was about two and a half feet from where his teacher was conducting the Rainbow Experiment, which is meant to show how igniting different types of salts produces colorful flames, at Beacon High School in Manhattan, New York, in January 2014.

“I remember feeling this immense heat completely come forward and wrap around my entire body,” Yanes recalled of the classroom disaster, which happened when he was in 10th grade.

When the teacher poured a flammable substance into a bowl of nitrate, the experiment went awry and caused an explosion, engulfing him in flames and landing him in the hospital for five months.

“I remember these flashes of blue and orange just flying toward my face. I remember feeling this burning sensation everywhere around my head,” Yanes said, explaining that he dropped to floor to try to put out the fire. “I was yelling out ‘help, help, somebody help me, please.'”

After several surgeries, Yanes is now doing much better, but told Inside Edition that after the accident, “I kinda looked like something out of a horror movie.”

Yanes and his parents sued his teacher and the New York City Department of Education, and he was awarded $60 million by a jury in July.

Before the jury’s decision, Yanes’ lawyer, Ben Rubinowitz, played a demonstration of the experiment in court and the scorching flames reached 10 feet.

Rubinowitz told Inside Edition that he hopes the lawsuit will bring more safety to classrooms — the outlet reported that Yanes’ chemistry classroom was not equipped with safety equipment like vests, fire blankets or a shower.

“If the teacher is going to undertake a demonstration like this, you have got to take precautions, you have got to take safety measures,” Rubinowitz said.

Related Articles

VIDEO : Investigations continue into science experiment gone wrong

• X (formerly Twitter)

Investigations are continuing into a school science experiment on Sydney's northern beaches that left 11 children and their teacher with burns.

• Disasters, Accidents and Emergency Incidents
• Primary Education

Stories from ABC News

Qatar suspends mediation between israel, hamas.

Trump’s new chief of staff: Who is Susie Wiles?

Trump, Biden to discuss Ukraine at White House

Man charged over alleged Iranian plot to assassinate Donald Trump

Pro-Palestinian protesters attack Israeli soccer fans in Amsterdam

• Environmental

Hilarious Science Experiments Gone Wrong

We wouldn’t be where we are today without science experiments. Through trial and error, scientists have discovered things like candy, soap, bubble gum, and the X-Ray, to name a few. Oftentimes, experiments are manipulated and planned to try and create something specific. Other times, scientific experiments are accidental and end up creating something completely different than the original goal. And sometimes, science experiments go completely wrong and researchers and students end up with horrible, hilarious results. Some of these experiments include exploding lungs, biting ants, and rat feces on the ceiling. At least these are something these people can laugh about now, even though it probably didn’t seem like it at the time.

An Inappropriate Science Experiment

This student wanted to surpass his peers in terms of intelligence and decided to conduct a science experiment on the teats of mammals. He began by studying cow udders, which seems like a reasonable way to study teats. As a teenage boy, he wanted to take it even further and branch out to human women. He used various explicit images and magazines in his experiment as his source material. Trying to be a good student, he was very thorough in gathering information and displayed his findings right in front of his poster board. By the look on his face, he had a fun time gathering information and learning a little bit more about women’s bodies, though his parents probably thought otherwise ( Interesting Engineering ).

NEXT >>

Don’t Leave The Kids Alone

There’s a reason children have teachers and helpers. It’s never a good idea to leave students alone in a classroom, especially a science classroom. After this teacher conducted a series of experiments involving potassium and water, the class clown decided to take advantage of her sudden absence. He didn’t understand measurements or how potassium reacts. So when he placed a large amount of potassium into a bowl, it shattered, exploded, and set off the smoke alarm. Try explaining that one to your parents ( Buzzfeed ).

<< Previous

The CEO Of New Coke Received 1,500 Complaints Per Day

Coca-Cola is one of the most known drinks in the world. People around the world consume this beverage daily. But Coca-Cola wasn’t a planned mission, it was a hilarious science experiment that went completely wrong. In nearly a century, the company wanted to revamp the drink and come out with an improved formula. But fans were outraged with the New Coke and complained about the new taste. While Coca-Cola was first an accident, when the producer mixed a concoction with carbonated water, the 1985 experiment was even more hilarious. People started hoarding the Old Coke in their homes and reached out to CEO Roverty Goizueta, who received 1,500 calls per day about the complaints ( History ).

Naked In The Uganda Forest Covered In Ants Is As Unpleasant As It Sounds

This person went to the Uganda forest to conduct experiments in nature and on wildlife. But after standing on top of an ant hill, which is a significant no-no, they ended up sprinting around the forest completely naked with ants on their body. What a hilarious sight to imagine. The bite of an army ant is both itchy and painful. The best thing to do is to rest and treat the edges with ice. There are no long-term effects of the bite, though it’s best to treat it immediately to avoid discomfort ( Cheezburger ).

Don’t Jumprope With Rat Intestines. Ever.

Kids will try anything. So when this student had an opportunity to jump rope with rat intestines, they didn’t hesitate. It’s not every day you have access to rat intestines. After jump roping with the intestines for a few moments, and likely making the entire class laugh with the cringy action, the intestines split. What did he think was going to happen? Instead of a clean break, the ripped intestines sent feces all over the room and on the ceiling ( Buzzfeed ).

This Scientist Thought Drinking Vomit To Experiment With Yellow Fever Was A Good Idea

In 1804, Stubbins Ffirth believed yellow fever wasn’t contagious. He wanted to prove this unprecedented opinion to the world by conducting hilarious experiments on himself during the 19th century. If you’re trying to prove something, the best way to test something safely is to start on yourself, right? It sounds like an awful idea. To do this, he cooked vomit from yellow fever patients and breathed in the vapor from the vomit. He dropped the vomit into his eyes and injected it with a small incision he made in his left arm. He also put drops of the patient’s blood serum into his left leg. Nearing the end of his experiment, he was taking rows of shots of black vomit, which has a slightly acidic taste. Ffirth didn’t catch yellow fever from the vomit, proving his point. But you can’t catch yellow fever from a person because it’s only spread through mosquitos, so there was no reason to drink vomit whatsoever ( Alpha History ).

That Was Not A Branch, It Was A Five Meter Caiman

Caimans are similar to alligators. They’re not animals you’d want to run into in the wild, especially one that’s five meters long. This scientist tapped a big branch with their machete to try and find out what it was. It was not a branch. It was a 5-meter caiman. They’re known to attack people, and according to Fact Animal , “while caimans are relatively docile animals, they can be territorial and aggressive when threatened.” It’s safe to assume they backed away slowly and got as far away as possible from the caiman. There’s no way they’d want to stick around and see what happens ( Cheezburger ).

Raising A Human And A Chimp Isn’t A Good Idea

Raising kids is tough. Making sure you have an ideal home environment, support, and proper care are only a few of the important details needed when raising a child. But in the early 1930s, a psychologist had a different plan than the typical way to raise a child. When Winthrop Kellogg and his wife birthed Donald, they decided to take a different approach to parent. They wanted to take feral raising to a new level and brought in a second child. This child was not human, it was a chimp named Gua. They wanted to see if they could raise both species together, and test if your environment truly shapes how you develop. Together, they raised Donald and Gua side by side. Gua surpassed Donald in terms of scribbling, strength, climbing, reflexes, and language comprehension. But she could not speak English. Kellogg abruptly ended the experiment when Donald began imitating the sounds of his chimp sister from another species, and “in short, the language retardation in Donald may have brought an end to the study” ( Smithsonian Mag ).

Coming Home From School Covered In Dead Sheep And Blood

When you go to school, you usually expect to spill soda or milk on your shirt, not dead sheep and blood. That’s what happened during a biology experiment involving sheep lungs. The teacher pumped up the lungs using a bike pump to show how they would inflate. It sounds like a great visual aid for a biology class, but the teacher made a grave error. He pumped the lungs up too much, and instead of deflating, they exploded and soaked the students in dead sheep and blood ( Buzzfeed ).

Exploding Coca-Cola Sent This Kid Into The Pool

This student was conducting a science experiment involving Coca-Cola and a pill that makes the carbonated beverage fizz up. We’re not sure what this student was trying to do, but it took a hilarious turn when the Coca-Cola fizzed up too much and the kid fell into the pool. We’re not sure why he was standing so close to the pool, either, but it looks like he set himself up for that failure ( Reddit ).

Accidentally Ingesting Fossils

Collecting fossils gives us answers and helps us piece together a past we know nothing about. When this person was conducting field experiments in the wild, they found an object. They couldn’t discern if it was a rock or a fossil, so they licked it, which sounds pretty strange. The object stuck to their tongue, and they went into a coughing fit and swallowed the fossil. They’ll have to wait a few more days for it to pass through their system before they can properly study it ( Cheezburger ).

The Cow Comes Back To Life

If you’re superstitious, it’s easy to believe that ghosts come back to haunt us. This student believed in ghosts because as she was dissecting a cow’s heart, a peer made an incredibly convincing moo sound. She screamed, threw the heart across the room, and hit someone in the head. It’s likely she believed the cow had come back to life and was haunting the students for picking her body apart ( Buzzfeed ).

Procrastination At Its Finest

When we were younger, the weeks before science fairs were nerve-wracking and stressful. We spent hours conducting our experiments, working on a conclusion, and making a beautiful presentation to show our peers and teachers. This student did the least amount of preparation. Instead of experimenting, they threw together a board with cutout photos of fish and labeled it “creatures of the ocean.” The hilarious presentation likely failed, though their confidence is admirable ( AnteChronos ).

What Not To Do With A Chip Pan Fire

There’s a reason we’re not supposed to do things. This teacher took the bait and showed his students what you’re not supposed to do, so his kids wouldn’t make the same mistake. While showing them what not to do with a chip pan fire, which is adding water, the flames hit the ceiling and burned it in the process. He likely burned his eyebrows and any other hair on his body in the process, too ( Buzzfeed ).

The Stealthy Lizard Makes An Escape

This lizard has some serious ninja skills. Firstly, it managed to elude capture for several weeks by a team of scientists. That takes some skill. Secondly, as a researcher was only inches away from capturing it, the lizard jumped on their head and leaped down its body and the entire length of them. Instead of grabbing it, it ran off. That’s one way to make a team of scientists feels like they’re miserably failing at their job. Though the fastest lizards can run up to 30 miles per hour, it’s understandable why it’s so hard to capture them ( Cheezburger ).

UFOs Do Exist, Right?

Kids say the oddest things, and oftentimes get outlandish ideas from their parents. At a science fair, one student claimed he could make a perpetual motion machine. He used a roll of duct tape and rare earth magnets to try and manipulate an object to spin indefinitely. When it didn’t work, he claimed it was due to friction. But the student didn’t think of this hilarious experiment himself, it was because his father claimed perpetual motion came from aliens ( Robhutten ).

Poison Gas Detector Saved Lives When It Turned Into A Smoke Detector

The invention of the smoke detector saved millions of lives. If your home has an operable smoke detector, your chances of dying in a fire decrease by half. This is all thanks to the hilarious science experiment thanks to Walter Jaeger, who was initially trying to invent a sensor to detect poison gas. Instead of gas, his detector picked up on the smoke from his cigarette, leading to the invention of the modern smoke detector. In 1977, stores sold more than 12 million smoke detectors, and today, 9 in 10 homes have smoke detectors. Even though this science experiment went wrong, it created something useful ( History ).

The Real-Life Game Of Lava Will Melt Your Shoes

When this person conducted fieldwork in Hawaii on an active volcano, they forgot about the simple contents of lava. It’s hot. As they walked across the lava flow, the soles of their shoes melted off. Lava can reach up to 2,200 degrees F, so it comes as no surprise that the lava melted off their shoes. Afterward, they went through the water, and their boots shrank. According to Fact Monster , this process is simple in that, “as they move apart, they take up more space, causing even solid objects to grow slightly larger. Molecules slow down as they cool, and they take up less room. This causes things to shrink a little bit.” A field scientist should probably know this by now, but it’s possible she was new to the job ( Cheezburger ).

Why We Need To Pay Attention

We need to pay attention in all areas of our life, and that includes driving, walking, eating, and conducting experiments in science class. This student learned a valuable lesson in attention the hard way. While they were heating crude oil and measuring its temperature, they failed to keep an eye on their experiment. The boiling oil exploded, hit the overhead light, and caused half the ceiling to break off and fall all over their teacher. That’s one way to ruin a teacher’s day, and a big mess they’ll have to clean up ( Buzzfeed ).

What Happens When We Die?

No one knows what happens when we die, though many people speculate. Some believe our soul goes to heaven, while others believe we’re reincarnated into an animal or tree. In 1901, Duncan MacDougall wanted to experiment with the soul and see where people’s souls went after death. To measure this, he weighed recently deceased people’s bodies both right before and immediately after death. After measuring six people, he discovered there was a weight difference of one to one and a half ounces. He somehow managed to obtain 15 dying dogs and did the same experiment. He found there was no weight difference, concluding that dogs have no soul. MacDougall’s experiments had no true basis or conclusion, though no one has tried to replicate the odd, yet hilarious experiment ( McGill ).

Don’t Carry Elephant Blood In Your Carry On

It’s not every day you carry elephant blood in your backpack, but for this scientist, it seems pretty common. As he was transporting 65 vials of elephant blood back home on an airplane, they exploded in his bag. That’s worse than cutting yourself and dealing with a bloody cut. The smell and the mess caused by the explosion must have been a sight to see. It’s likely safe to assume his experiment was a complete failure since the elephant blood is now soiled ( Cheezburger ).

Mr. Flappy Gets Eaten

In school, you and your teachers might have watched a caterpillar turn into a butterfly, raised a pet guinea pig, or in this case, raised a pet goldfinch. These cute yellow birds are friendly and chirpy. But during this school experiment, when the teacher released the goldfinch into the wild, a monumental moment in its life, it was immediately captured by a falcon. The 24 horrified middle schoolers had a tough life experience, right before their eyes. Even though it didn’t have a happy ending, the children learned more in one moment than they would have, had the bird successfully flown into the wild ( Cheezburger ).

Human Orgasm, To The Weather, To Alien Invasion

Trying to link orgasms, the weather, and alien invasions sounds downright ridiculous. But not to Psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. He managed to draw a straight line between the three. Through his experiments, he found an energy called orgone, supposedly responsible for everything, including orgasms, the weather, and aliens. In the 1950s, he was convinced aliens were trying to manipulate this energy. To fight the aliens, he and his son built Cloudbusters, a row of tubes attached to hoses. They immersed the hoses in water and aimed them at the sky. The FDA stopped his experiments and arrested him. The rest of his life was a downfall, in that he was “denied nearly everywhere, diagnosed as suffering from “paranoia manifested by delusions of grandiosity and persecution,” Reich died of a heart attack in the federal penitentiary at Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, in 1957. He was 60 years old and had served nine months of a two-year sentence.” He could never convince anyone of his outlandish science experiments ( Washington Post ).

Getting Arrested For Counting Parakeets

Researchers need to be stealthy in the wild, especially when they’re tracking animals. That’s the point of camouflage. When this person used binoculars to count invasive parakeets roosting near NATO headquarters, their science experiment took a turn for the worse. NATO likely assumed they were a spy and the security team arrested them. Using binoculars near NATO headquarters is not the smartest move. At least they have a valid explanation as to why they were hovering around NATO with binoculars ( Cheezburger ).

Oh… It Fell

Test tubes don’t stand on their own, and it’s easy to come to this conclusion with one quick glance. That’s why test tube holders exist. For some reason, this teacher decided test tubes can stand on their own. Maybe she misjudged the shape or thought her test tubes were different. After filling the test tubes with acid, one of them fell over, and unsurprisingly so. All she did was look at it and say, “oh… it fell.” To be fair, there’s nothing else you could say in that situation ( Buzzfeed ).

10-Cent Beer Night Gone Wrong

You’d think that promoting a game with 10-cent beer would be a good idea. Everyone gets to drink cheaply and enjoy their day. But not this crowd. The Cleveland Indians indirectly experimented on human behavior by running a 10-cent beer promotion to help with attendance. For 10 cents per cup, fans purchased an unlimited amount of beer. But the game took a turn for the worse when a naked fan ran onto the field, people mooned the bleacher section, and fans launched fireworks into the Rangers’ dugout. The game ended with a riot and injuries when people were pelted with rocks. According to Bleacher Report , “most of the intoxicated fans had knives, chains, and portions of the stadium’s seats that they had ripped off. Ken Aspromonte, the manager of the Indians, realizing that some of the Rangers’ players’ lives were in danger, told his players to grab bats and help them out.” It’s safe to say the Cleveland Indians never repeated this experiment ( Bleacher Report ).

Don’t Try This At Home, Kids

This student tried to conduct a science experiment involving height. She wanted to test how high is too high for something to fall. Initially, you’d assume she’d test falling with an object like an egg or a bottle of water. Instead, she wanted to test it on herself. She started with reasonable heights, but eventually pushed the experiment too far. As you can see, she broke a few bones in her arms. At least that was the extent of her injuries, and hopefully the last time she tries to experiment on herself ( Interesting Engineering ).

What Can Go Wrong, Will Definitely Go Wrong

When one bad thing happens, it feels like it sets off a chain reaction, like the domino effect. Another bad thing happens, and another, and another. That’s what happened to this student during one of their science experiments. First, they set their lab notebook on fire, broke a beaker while trying to put it out, and almost set the printer on fire. It’s a good thing that’s all that happened, and their teacher now uses that as an example of paying attention. Usually, you only make a mistake like that once ( Buzzfeed ).

McDonald’s Tried To Be Healthy With Bubblegum-Flavored Broccoli

There’s a reason kids don’t like broccoli, or vegetables in general. Even though they need to eat their vegetables, parents may find it difficult to convince their kids to munch on green food. Why would they do that, when they could eat a burger and fries instead? In 2014, Mcdonald’s tried to help with this by offering bubble-gum-flavored broccoli. They also figured they needed to serve more nutritious food at their restaurant, so why not serve broccoli the fun way? It was a hilarious experiment that never actually made it to a Happy Meal since kids were confused by the taste. It’s better to leave vegetables as they are and instead offers more salads or smaller portions, McDonald’s ( Business Insider ).

Give A Baboon Toilet Paper, They’ll Decorate The Trees

This baboon was doing some home decorating after they stole a roll of toilet paper from field workers conducting experiments in the wild. They left their last roll of toilet paper out, and the baboons saw it as an opportunity for free decorations. They grabbed the toilet paper and decorated a very high tree, one that was impossible for them to climb. Let’s hope they were near a river, otherwise, their trips to the bathroom the rest of their time will be very unpleasant ( Cheezburger ).

EDITOR PICKS

7 Movies About Science Experiments Gone Wrong

Your changes have been saved

Email is sent

Email has already been sent

Please verify your email address.

You’ve reached your account maximum for followed topics.

Every Disney Animation Movie Releasing After Moana 2

Every live-action lex luthor, ranked, brendan fraser’s 10 most underrated movies.

Science has been responsible for countless improvements on the way we live. From the curing of diseases to faster transportation and even robotic automation, the effects of science have become ubiquitous in the 21st Century, as reported by Live Science . But these breakthroughs wouldn’t have been achieved without rigorous testing beforehand, and obviously not every test and experiment is a success, a fact that movies and literature loves to play on.

Humans are curious by nature, so it makes sense that many movies are keen to explore where this curiosity could potentially lead them, but as the saying goes ‘curiosity killed the cat’ (or entire civilizations in some cases). Regardless of the intention behind such research, whether well-meaning or not, the ‘scientific experiments gone wrong trope’ has been a staple of science fiction movies for as long the genre has existed. Here are some of the most notable movies that showcase just how wrong it can go.

Related: Sci-Fi Movies That Are Actually Scientifically Accurate

One of two movies on this list to feature the wonderful Jeff Goldblum . This time around, he is playing the role of the guinea pig in an experiment that was intended to finally nail down the science behind teleportation (and forever put airlines out of business). At first, all looks good as Goldblum’s character is successfully teleported from one pod to another. Little did they know, though, that a pesky housefly had entered the pod with Goldblum. The result? Over the rest of the movie, he begins to gradually transform into a hideous human-sized fly, as well as picking up some of its habits. Thanks to director David Cronenberg ’s warped imagination and his love of grotesque practical effects, The Fly is a (rather unpleasant) feast for the eyes, to say the least.

6 Frankenstein (1931)

At only 20 years of age, in 1918, Mary Shelley had written what would become one of the most well-known and influential stories of all time: Frankenstein . A cornerstone of gothic literature , various stories and adaptations have been brought to the big (and small) screen many times over the century that followed. The story is about scientist Viktor Frankenstein and his attempt to bring to life a being of his own creation, but after disappointment with the product of his experiment, the creature is shunned by Frankenstein and humankind in general. As a result, it grows resentful and comes back for revenge. The first major appearance of Frankenstein and his monster was in the 1910 Frankenstein silent movie. He was resurrected again in 1931 by Universal Studios in what is probably its most iconic iteration, going on to be selected by United States Library of Congress for preservation in the National Film Registry as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’

5 The Invisible Man (2020)

Like Frankenstein , movies inspired by H.G Well’s Victorian sci-fi horror have been plentiful. Based on a scientist desperate to find a way to allow humans to become invisible at will, he manages to have seemingly achieved this goal and now possesses this immense power. But as the saying goes, with great power comes great responsibility, and unfortunately the subject of this experiment is one of the most irresponsible people imaginable and uses these powers for nefarious and deadly purposes. Surprisingly throughout its many adaptations the most recent The Invisible Man , starring Elisabeth Moss, is arguably the best. Thanks to its superior character development, its tension building, and dark tone, viewers were treated to a genuinely scary and emotionally engaging horror that received critical acclaim.

4 Honey, I Shrunk the Kids

Taking a more light-hearted and family friendly approach to disastrous science experiments, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids is about an eccentric scientist who creates a shrink ray gun that can shrink whatever object it is fired at. What could go wrong you ask? Well, in this case, the ‘father of the year’ somehow fails to keep the majorly dangerous science gun out of the reach of children, which results in his kids getting shrunk! The film is actually a fine mixture of fun, excitement, and humor as the children, now only a quarter of an inch in height and having been discarded in the trash, have to work together to make it through the backyard and overcome the dangers within. Just imagine potentially being over-powered by a single ant, and you’ll get the idea.

Related: The Best Sci-Fi Movies of the '80s, Ranked

3 Rise of the Planet of the Apes

The first Planet of the Apes trilogy, in which humans and intelligent apes clash for control, are among the most iconic movies within the sci-fi genre. Unfortunately, the 2001 Tim Burton reboot failed to recapture that same magic, and the poor response led to any plans of further sequels to be abandoned. Fast-forward to 2014, and in steps Rupert Wyatt to try and resurrect the beloved franchise. Rise of The Planet of the Apes was a huge success with critics and fans alike, in large thanks to Andy Serkis' performance as Caesar. But take a deeper look, and it’s the humans who unfortunately were cause of this whole angry ape debacle. What started as a well-intentioned experiment to cure Alzheimer’s escalated into monkeys taking over the world, a cautionary tale, perhaps, about the dangers of testing on animals.

2 The Nutty Professor (1996)

The Nutty Professor had viewers mesmerized by Eddie Murphy 's prowess at undergoing major transformations to portray several characters, including Sherman Klump, a scientist whose experiment creates his more attractive and charismatic alter ego, Buddy Love. Unfortunately, not everything works out as well as Sherman had initially hoped, as Buddy Love grows more and more egotistical, creating more problems than solving them and hoping to take over Sherman’s body for good. This remake of the classic film garnered generally positive reviews from critics and was a box office success. Aside from being peak Murphy humor, it’s also quite an emotional ride with a positive message about loving yourself for who you are.

1 Jurassic Park

It’s hard to say whether the experiments being carried out at Jurassic Park were ever really well-intentioned, but needless to say: the idea was cool as hell! In this 1993 Steven Spielberg blockbuster, a team of genetic scientists, funded by a wealthy businessman, create a wildlife park of ‘de-extinct’ dinosaurs. Amazing as this sounds, there is clearly so much scope to go wrong with resurrecting some of the most dangerous animals to ever walk the earth. And obviously, following some kind of sabotage, things do go wrong — very wrong. With multiple casualties and absolute chaos as the dinosaurs break free and run amok, you’d think that everyone would learn from their mistakes, but apparently not as a further five movies have been made (with a sixth due soon), wherein these dinosaurs continue to wreak havoc.

• Movie Lists