Esther Inglis-Arkell, Author at Gizmodo

Do Rats On Drugs Listen To Miles Davis? Depends.

Years ago, this experiment got written up a few places with headlines like, “Your tax dollars at work!” But that’s what happens when your experiment gives rats cocaine and makes them listen to jazz. Of course, the experiment wasn’t about seeing if cocaine helped rats enjoy jazz (although it does). The first experiment involved rats…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Amuse Yourself with This Vintage Pseudoscience Personality Test

The internet is filled to the brim with personality tests like, “What kind of flavored potato chip are you?” In the old days, we had to get our pseudoscience personality tests the hard way, through literature and word-of-mouth. I finally tracked down one test that made the rounds at my school for years. A husband…

Books & Comics Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Experiment That Makes People Face Up to Their Moral Hypocrisy

Here’s a delicious little experiment that give us a look at the seedy immorality of its research participants. No, it’s not the Milgram Experiment or the Stanford Prison Experiment. It’s as simple as a coin toss. A group of people are brought in for an experiment, and asked to choose from one of two different…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Would You Notice A Massive Increase In Police Presence?

Let’s say the police patrol presence in your area was tripled. Would you feel safer? If you were a criminal, would be feel more afraid? A now-infamous year-long study showed that most likely you wouldn’t even notice. In 1972, the police in Kansas City, Missouri, tried a year-long experiment to see how random police patrols…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Elephants Might Be Able To Self-Medicate To Induce Labor

We know that animals have found ways to get themselves drunk or high by eating certain plants or fermented fruit, but recently, scientists have started studying the self-medication of animals — a branch of science dubbed zoopharmacognosy. This is how we discovered elephants might have a way to bring on labor. Researcher H. T. Dublin…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Watch What Happens When You Dip a Cheeseburger in Acid

This video will let you see scientists do to a cheeseburger what Judge Doom did to that cartoon shoe in Who Framed Roger Rabbit. They dunk the cheeseburger in hydrochloric acid and see what happens. It’s not an explosion, but it’s a pretty good show all the same. Hydrochloric acid is what’s swishing around your…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Good TV Could Be Making You Eat Too Much

One of the visual codes for engrossing television is viewers sitting frozen with their spoons of ice cream half-way to their mouths. It seems like a great show might make you stop eating because you concentrate. Turns out that great television actually makes you eat more because you concentrate. In a one-time survey, 120 people…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

What Does It Mean When Chickens Share Human Beauty Standards?

Here’s an interesting little experiment. A group of chickens and a group of humans were asked to “rate” male or female faces based on beauty. The chickens agreed with the humans. But what does it mean? The experiment began when a group of researchers recruited a group of trained lab chickens, who were savvy about…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

This Molecule Can Prove You’re a Supertaster (Or a Caffeine Junkie)

This is 6-n-propylthiouracil, otherwise known as PROP. It once had a conventional medical purpose. Now it’s being shoved into people’s mouths to see if they’re genetically gifted (or cursed) with the power of supertaste. People first were dosed with 6-n-propylthiouracil, or PROP, when they discovered they had hyperthyroidism. The drug took out an enzyme required…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

How Can Precision Actually Be a Bias?

Let’s say you’ve got a set of studies on the same subject, and they all yield very similar results. They must be showing an accurate answer, right? Nope. Precision and accuracy are not anywhere near the same thing. Mixing them up could get you in real trouble. Most people explain precision bias as what happens…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Injustice And Lies Are The Way To Solve Our Hatred Of Waiting In Line

Everyone hates waiting in line. It’s boring, it’s annoying, and you actively feel your life slipping away as you do it. You might think the solution to this problem would be common courtesy and fair play. You’d be wrong. Turns out there’s an entire field of research called “queuing theory.” Some of it is innocuous,…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Good Chocolate, Like Good Steel, Must Be Tempered

The process of tempering, in both steel and chocolate, is the same. The material is heated and cooled until its internal structure is such that it can be carried by a warrior with honor. Here’s how to make chocolate, or a sword, or a chocolate sword. You can buy, or prepare, all the ingredients for…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

What Did Doctors Learn By Scaring Toddlers in the “Risk Room”?

Remember the twisted experiment to see what happens when kids think they’ve broken a treasured toy? The doctor in charge of that study also studied children’s responses to a creepy “Risk Room.” Their behavior in the room revealed surprising things about the child’s future behavior. https://gizmodo.com/the-messed-up-experiment-meant-to-induce-crippling-guil-1606447630 Toddler Personality Types What do you learn about a…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

How A Biochemical Invention Of The Mongols Gave Us Sour Cream

When you’re enjoying your burrito, you should briefly think of the biochemical ingenuity of the horse-riding culture that nearly overran Europe. The Mongols had to process their food in a special way, and they liked getting drunk — this led to a culinary treasure. The Mongols tended to eat what they brought with them, and…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Can You Match Wits With A Child Mathematical Genius?

There’s a legend in the mathematics community, about how a gifted youngster figured out a problem so brilliantly that his teacher allowed him to study on his own. We’ll tell you about the prodigy, and the story, and see if you can guess his methods. Carl Friedrich Gauss was a polymath whose life spanned the…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Car Dealers Use the “Defense in Depth” Strategy to Wear You Down

At one point or another, most people will have to be in some kind of negotiation for a big ticket item. The most notorious of these negotiations is the car. Car salesmen have become famous for their underhanded negotiation tactics. There is an actual name for one strategy that car dealerships (and other unscrupulous types)…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Mathematician Who Showed How the US Could Be Made A Dictatorship

You might remember Kurt Gödel. He was last seen on io9 proving the existence of God, at least in theory. Legend has it he also found an odd clause in the Constitution which proves that the United States could be legally made a dictatorship. And he told it to immigration officers. Kurt Gödel was born…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

The Messed-Up Experiment Meant To Induce Crippling Guilt In Children

Do you know when children start to feel guilt? Scientists at the University of Iowa do, because of this little experiment. They gave children a toy, told them that the toy was very special to them, and asked the child to be extremely careful with it. Then the toy broke. The toy, usually a doll…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Which Animals Can Differentiate Between Languages?

Talking to animals, including baby human animals, is a waste of time. They don’t know what you’re saying. But there has been an experiment that proves certain animals they do know what language you’re saying it in. Scientists at the University of Barcelona have figured out that animals can distinguish between different human languages. How…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Why Does Your Apple Turn Brown, and How Can You Stop It?

Cut an apple in half and you begin a race against time. Every second you waste is a second that your apple uses to turn into a flaccid brown mess. Why do apples try so hard to foil your quest for vitamins? Science has the answer. Photo by nayladen via Shutterstock The Browning Enzyme Certain…

io9 Esther Inglis-Arkell

Esther Inglis-Arkell

Do Rats On Drugs Listen To Miles Davis? Depends.

Amuse Yourself with This Vintage Pseudoscience Personality Test

The Experiment That Makes People Face Up to Their Moral Hypocrisy

Would You Notice A Massive Increase In Police Presence?

Elephants Might Be Able To Self-Medicate To Induce Labor

Watch What Happens When You Dip a Cheeseburger in Acid

Good TV Could Be Making You Eat Too Much

What Does It Mean When Chickens Share Human Beauty Standards?

This Molecule Can Prove You’re a Supertaster (Or a Caffeine Junkie)

How Can Precision Actually Be a Bias?

Injustice And Lies Are The Way To Solve Our Hatred Of Waiting In Line

Good Chocolate, Like Good Steel, Must Be Tempered

What Did Doctors Learn By Scaring Toddlers in the “Risk Room”?

How A Biochemical Invention Of The Mongols Gave Us Sour Cream

Can You Match Wits With A Child Mathematical Genius?

Car Dealers Use the “Defense in Depth” Strategy to Wear You Down

The Mathematician Who Showed How the US Could Be Made A Dictatorship

The Messed-Up Experiment Meant To Induce Crippling Guilt In Children

Which Animals Can Differentiate Between Languages?

Why Does Your Apple Turn Brown, and How Can You Stop It?

5 Things You May Have Missed During NASA’s Historic Launch of Artemis 2

Artemis 2 Day 2: Follow the Mission With Our Live Updates 🔴

30 Unpublished Poems From Iconic Greek Philosopher Discovered in Cairo

Lucid Recalls 4,000 Gravity SUVs for Faulty Seat Belts That May Not Actually Work During a Collision

Ninja Blast Max Hits Its Lowest Price and Now One of the Cheapest Portable Blenders Worth Buying

The ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ Sequel Is a Beautifully Executed Dystopian Nightmare

Antibiotics Turned This Woman’s Limbs Into an Unsettling Horrorshow

Microsoft Visual Studio Professional 2026 Bundle at 97% Off With Premium Coding Certification Included, a Complete Learn-to-Code Package

Shark PowerPro Reveal Plus Cordless Vacuum Drops to an All-Time Low, Selling Faster Than Dyson at a Fraction of the Price

The First Trailer for ‘Widow’s Bay’ Welcomes You to a Creepy Horror Comedy

The Best Gadgets of March 2026

AirPods Max 2 Review: Still Ridiculously Expensive and Ridiculously Nice

DJI Osmo 360 Review: The Best 360 Camera for the DJI-Pilled

Aqara Smart Lock U400 Review: Hands-free Unlocking at Its Best

MSI Prestige 14 Flip AI+ Review: A Solid 2-in-1 Laptop With Some Glaring Flaws

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?