Professor Guinea Pig: Difference between revisions

** The worst bit is that the superhero Komodo uses an refined form of his process to allow her to change at will into a lizard form that retains her consciousness and grows back her legs. So if he had just ''tested the bloody thing'' he might have been much more successful, possibly still at the cost of growing scales whenever he wanted to use his arm.

** Testing your own inventions on yourself is the fast track to [[Just Add Water|instant super-villainy]] in the Marvel universe. Especially if you have an unusual name that sort of sounds like the scientific branch you're currently researching.

* ''[[X-Men (Comic Book)|X-Men]]'': This is the origin of the original blue fuzzy status of Beast. In the X-[[Spider-Man]] crossover novel trilogy ''Time's Arrow'', a future scientist [[Lampshade Hanging|hangs a lampshade]] on Beast's testing an experimental serum by drinking it. McCoy has the grace to be embarrassed. His original intention was to use it as a means of disguise which he could use to spy for his employer, one which he would reverse when his spying was done. (Yes, in those days Hank had a little problem with ethics.) However, it is true that Hank drinking the serum was a rather dumbass move to make, and Beast even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades this himself]], when he observes that he didn't ''have'' to drink it—keeping it out of his employer's hands aside, it was in the end an act of hubris.

** Incidentally, this habit went horribly wrong in the [[Elseworlds]] ''Mutant X''—one of his projects significantly damaged his intelligence, and he's no longer smart enough to undo the effects.

'''Dan''': Oh, yeah. Whoops. }}

* In the ''[[Wonder Woman]]'' comics, The Cheetah turned herself into a human/cheetah hybrid this way, after her funding for whatever tests she was doing ran out and she started testing on herself.

 

== Fan Works ==

** ''[[The Invisible Man (TV series)|The Invisible Man]]'' [2000] had the title protagonist become violent and psychotic, but there was a counteragent for this effect that had to be taken regularly.

*** Note that in this case the protagonist was the scientist's brother, and there had been previous testing done, albeit not with very encouraging results. The protagonist accepted this because [[Boxed Crook|the alternative was life in prison]] for a crime other than the one he actually committed. His brother also did know how to reverse the process...[[No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup|but didn't bother to tell anybody else or keep any records of it, so it became permanent when he was murdered]].

** He did intend for himself to be the first human test subject, with the space of time to observe negative side effects in said dog being a few minutes.

** In [[The Time Machine]] he at least has the presence of mind to build a proof of concept device first.

* [[Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea]]: In a variation, [[The Professor]] Aronnax is willing to sacrifice his own freedom for the rest of his life [[For Science!|for the rare chance to discover all the sea’s secret in the Nautilus]]. Fortunately, he is not [[Guinea Pig Family|willing to sacrifice his friend’s freedom]] and leads them in their [[Great Escape]].

* A doctor in J.G. Farrell's ''The Siege of Krishnapur'' drinks the 'rice-water' from a cholera patient, to demonstrate his confidence in the miasma theory of disease transmission (the theory that diseases are the result of bad air). It doesn't go well.

 

== Live-Action TV ==

* ''[[Portal 2]]'' reveals that Cave Johnson, the lunatic founder of Aperture Science, was not above testing his inventions on himself. This resulted in his death by Conversion Gel (moon dust) poisoning. Somewhat related, when his recruitment of [[Disposable Vagrant|street bums]] as test subjects had less than ideal results, he began encouraging his own employees to test the company's products, which had a negative effect on morale and retention. The next evolution of this seems to have occurred only after his death, with "[[It Got Worse|Bring Your Daughter to Work Day]]".

* Done by Dr Nitrus Brio in ''[[Crash Bandicoot]]'' at the end of the boss battle. Before that, he spends time throwing the beakers at you. The red beakers, properly mixed, become highly volatile, exploding when smashed, while the green ones release semi-alive brains that chase after you. Naturally drinking a mixture of both turns him into a giant green muscleman.

 

== Web Comics ==

* In [[Dead of Summer]], Alan Stone is this, testing {{spoiler|a 'cure' for zombiism on himself. When it fails, turning him into a monster, [[Moral Event Horizon|he uses it on his wife]]}}.

* The Sparks of [[Girl Genius]] have a habit of "self-augmentation" just as much as experiments on other (often unwilling) patients.

* Ladies and Gentlemen, [http://nonadventures.com/2007/04/14/shark-and-shark-alike/ Dr. Shark]

'''Archer:''' I'll pass.

'''Krieger:''' Suit yourself. ''(pops a pill)'' Just means more for me and Danny. }}

 

== Real Life ==

** Stapp is possibly one of the few crossovers in the category of of [[Badass Bookworm]] and [[Colonel Badass]]

* In order to demonstrate that stomach ulcers were caused by Helicobacter pylori, Barry Marshall cultured and drank a beakerfull. Along with his partner, he got a Nobel prize for this <s>idiocy</s> self-endangering behavior, which admittedly helped many people.

*** Having read the original paper as a student of pathology this troper can clarify that they did, in fact, demonstrate a link between the two, hence the Nobel Prize, ingesting micro-organisms to induce illness not being particularly original. Granted the prize was not for swallowing the broth, but the experiment did provide a valuable proof of the mechanism of intestinal pathology by the bacterium in question.

* Isaac Newton was a real-life example of this trope. In addition to looking into the sun through a telescope, he also forced blood to his head until he passed out, and ''jammed a bodkin'' ''[[Eye Scream|behind his eye]]'' to check if squashing it would make what he saw go blurry by changing the distance between the back of the eyeball and confirm it was a lens at the front.

* Meet [http://outside.away.com/outside/features/200212/200212_popsicle_splash.html Dr. Gordon Giesbrecht], AKA Professor Popsicle. He believes that the best way to study the effects of hypothermia on the human body is to subject himself to it. Repeatedly. By doing things like falling into frozen lakes, fully dressed.

* [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703882304575465313342139200.html Dr. Stephane Huberty] has myasthenia gravis, a condition too rare to get much attention from researchers. He found out about a possible vaccine, only tested on animals, and set up a company to produce it. But clinical trials were several years and millions of dollars away—so he injected himself. Apparently he's feeling better. (The article lists a few more examples of this trope, not all encouraging.)

* The Nuremberg Code, formulated after the trials of the concentration camp "doctors," expressly forbids any form of human experimentation unless the doctors in question experiment on themselves - and treats even that exception as being ethically and morally dubious. No country has ever adopted the Nuremberg Code in its entirety.