Primrose Kitten

Elephants on Acid.

If you are into the darker, more mysterious side of science, if you have particular interest for twisted experiments and their incredible results, then you should probably read Elephants on Acid by Alex Boese.

There have been incredibly bizarre, controversial experiments in the history of science, that isn’t a secret for anybody, the thing is, these experiments are kept away from the general public, to keep the “bad” image away… Or that was until this book came up.

You see, author Alex Boese brings us these great compilations of what were some of the most strange scientific experiments ever made and shines a light on them, the people who did them and the results they obtained in the hopes everyone can know about it.

Reading the book itself is a whole different experience than anything you have ever read before, simply because Elephants on Acid manages to be fun yet slightly disturbing all at once, making it a bit of a bizarre experience to understand.

The author wanted to shine a light on these incredibly interesting yet super strange experiments in a way that was easy to understand and with a slight touch of humour, and you could say he managed to achieve what he wanted.

The book itself is divided into chapters, each talking about a different experiment, and every time it gets weirder and weirder, starting with the fact he talks about one of the most controversial trials in recent history… The Tusko Elephant experiment.

This particular experiment centred around giving LSD to an elephant to test how they would react if given a massive amount of this specific drug (get why the book is called elephants on acid?)… It is safe the say the results were shocking.

But the point here isn’t the results, but the fact this experiment happened, and that science allowed it. And not only this particular one, but many, many other experiments that were done in the name of science.

As you start to read the book, you will go through many of these experiments, and you should be warned, they are quite hard to read at times, although the humour and bad jokes of the author always step in to save the day.

Overall, this is a book for anyone who is into slightly weird but interesting stuff, who would also like to know a bit more about science. It’s accessible to ready, and you’ll often find yourself surprised by all the experiments.