Was a 2003 movie right about the weight of the human soul?
A rolling pun and some statistics. When you throw a die in a game, you expect that rolling any number (1 through 6) would occur one out of six times. This is credible statistics because the game cube has only six sides. But imagine proposing a universal theory about death after watching only six people die. And yet, that is exactly what one Duncan MacDougall did back in 1907.
In fact, Dr. MacDougall not only made the biggest media impact with the least statistical evidence, but also got away with an unlikely theory based on the pro- and post-death conditions of exactly six terminally-ill people. His conclusion: the human body undergoes a weight loss at the time of death that’s associated with the soul checking out of the body, which is to say that you can measure the weight of the soul by accurately computing the weight loss. And he weighed the human soul.
The trailer for a 2003 movie started off with this: “They say that we all lose 21 grams at the exact moment of death”. And the movie was called ’21 grams’, inspired by evidence from just one of a total of six patients under observation. Two of the results had to be excluded because of “technical difficulties”. One patient’s death did show a drop in weight of about three-eighths of an ounce, but this later reversed itself! Two of the other patients registered an immediate loss of weight at the moment of death, and a second one later (did they die twice?)
Dr. MacDougall used a special bed “arranged on a light framework built upon very delicately balanced platform beam scales”. His article appeared in American Medicine and the New York Times (a Journal ff Record). His experiments with dogs didn’t show any weight loss, which substantiated the belief that animals have no souls. But, even today, with all of our sophisticated technology, it is still very difficult at times to determine the precise moment of death.
And what death did the discoverer mean? Cellular death? Brain death? Physical death? Heart death? Or legal death? MacDougall later tried to explain away the timing discrepancies by concluding that “the soul’s weight is removed from the body virtually at the instant of last breath, though in persons of sluggish temperament it may remain in the body for a full minute.” At any rate, the “fact” that the soul weighed three-quarters of an ounce (roughly 21 grams) got stuck to the common knowledge. Is it there to stay?
SNEAK PREVIEW
WRITE WRONG, READ RIGHT
According to a research at an English university, it doesn’t matter in what order the letters in a word are. The only important thing is that the first and last letters are at the right place. The rest can be a total mess and you can still read it without any problem. This is because we do not read every letter by itself; we read the word as a whole. Now try this: Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, The olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteers are at the rghit pclae, etc.
POWER POINTS ON EGGS
The speckles on bird eggs provide structural reinforcement for the fragile shells. These portions have thinner layers of calcium carbonate than areas without speckles, and are therefore in need of support. The spots proved to contain protoporphyrin, a class of pigments known for their strength and flexibility that could therefore act as glue. Possibly the pigments are applied within the mother to shore up local calcium deficiencies on the egg’s surface. Speckle density could be as an easy indicator of birds’ exposure to toxins.
QUIZ No.205
1. William G. Morgan called it Mintonette. What do we call it?
– Peppermint
– Legal coinage
– Mint Julep (cocktail)
– Volleyball
1. Volleyball
2. Who became the first known discoverer of something while experimenting with human urine?
– Hennig Brand
– Henry Cavendish
– Gustav R. Kirchhoff
– Robert Bunsen
2. Hennig Brand (who discovered phosphorus)
3. Which singer was a seasoned pilot who died while testing an experimental airplane?
– John Denver
– Johnny Cash
– Jimmie Rodgers
– Jimi Hendrix
3. John Denver
4. Who or what would you associate with Julius Martov?
– Menshevism
– ‘Sleeping Beauty’
– Czarina Alexandra
– Molotov cocktail
4. Menshevism
5. Which of them is not a roller coaster inversion?
– Raven Turn
– Heartline Roll
– Flying Snake Dive
– Scarecrow Loop
5. Scarecrow Loop