Reminiscent, in a general way, of the film Snakes on a Plane, here are two recent (or fairly recent) instances of scary (if you find them scary) animals interacting with humans inside a machine.
Bat on a plane:
Bat stows away on Delta flight, CDC fears rabies risk to passengers
The CDC said the flight returned to the Madison airport after the bat began flying through the cabin. The bat made several passes before passengers were able to trap it in the airplane lavatory, but the animal got away before authorities could collect it. As a result, health officials were unable to test the bat to determine if it was rabid. Officials now want to alert the 50 passengers on the flight about the possible risk. The CDC said it has been able to contact 14 passengers and is trying to reach 36 others. [Quote is from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Via The Further Adventures of Germ Girl]
Snake in an MRI tube:
"Fear Thou Not: Activity of Frontal and Temporal Circuits in Moments of Real-Life Courage," Uri Nili, Hagar Goldberg, Abraham Weizman and Yadin Dudai [pictured here], Neuron, vol. 66, no. 6, June 24, 2010, pp. 949-962. The authors, at the Weizmann Institute, explain (and also present video of): "In this study, volunteers who fear snakes had to bring a live snake into close proximity with their heads while their brains were scanned using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Bringing the snake closer was associated with a dissociation between subjective fear and somatic arousal."
BONUS: Highlights from Snakes on a Plane.
This post originally appeared on Improbable Research. Videos added by io9.