Unusual science
Unusual science
Describes the attempts of a patient (DF) to improve his quality of life after being diagnosed with Fatal Familial Insomnia (FFI). FFI is a rare genetically transmitted neurodegenerative prion disease with no known cure or treatment (other than palliative care). Death occurs within a few months to a few years after onset. The main symptom is gradually worsening insomnia which often leads to other symptoms such as speech and coordination problems, hallucinations and dementia.
However, DF, an American man in his 50s with a doctorate in naturopathy decided to use his background to take matters into his own hands to improve his final months and extend his life as long as possible by getting as much sleep as possible despite suffering total insomnia. This included homemade treatments using an extreme cocktail of vitamin supplements, narcoleptics, anaesthesia, stimulants, sensory deprivation, exercise, light entrainment, growth hormones and self-administered electroconvulsive therapy.
In the end, DF succumbed to his illness but managed to extend his life by nearly 1 year. During this time most patients suffering from FFI would be completely incapacitated. However, DF was able to write a novel and successfully drive hundreds of miles in his car.
Experimental archaeology attempts to prove whether or not it is possible to fashion a working knife from frozen human excrement. A claim made in various ethnographic and historical accounts of survival in the Arctic.
This study describes the results of an experiment which involved the human consumption of a small rodent in order to examine skeletal element representation, breakage and digestive damage from stomach acid.