"The human plutonium injection experiments" sounds like some of the most unethical science experiments ever done. Thank you for sharing this story, Kyle.
Mengele's experiments during WWII probably qualify as the most unethical and horrific of all time, although Japan's Unit 731 is a close second. (They did vivisections of prisoners who were alive and awake, among other atrocities.) But for the US alone the Tuskegee experiments were probably the most unethical. African-American men infected with syphilis were not only untreated (penicillin existed already), they were lied to and told they _had_ been treated. This went on for _40 years_, until someone leaked information about the experiments to the press, and at least 128 of the men in the experiments died thanks to them.
The fact that Cecil was still talking and consoling his wife and giving her instruction to care for their children, all while his insides were turning to goop, were liquefied, shows that he was EXTREMELY strong of will. What a bad ass father. No crying for salvation, just, "I will die. I need to console my wife." Outstanding.
He may have known he already had salvation; we should. I agree he was a strong, very brave man. This has always been one of the saddest radiation accidents imo.
Bravery was very common back in those days, both in men and women. The greatest generation was strong and perseverent, unlike today's spineless crybabies who need safe spaces and worry about their "feelings" every waking moment. RIP to Cecil Kelley : a true man, husband, father and patriot.
@@SevenSixTwo2012 Cecil Kelley didn't melt from the inside out so you could call people "spineless crybabies" on the internet. He'd be mortified that you used his unimaginable suffering to justify pointless mockery.
yeah, right? We humans are weird, at times we are the most fragile of all mammals, and then whe can survive and be conscious for a few hours with parts of our bodies being turned into mush because of gamma rays.
I grew up in Los Alamos. My father works there. They didn’t clean up the radioactive dumping ground known as “Acid Canyon” until I was in middle school (2010s). The run off leads right to the Rio Grande. In my experience, the money and power given to the scientists at Los Alamos still gives them a god complex and unbreakable loyalty to the lab. There are generations of families working there that carry the legacy and, unfortunately, the apathy to fellow human beings that you just saw in the video.
I stumbled on this and scrolled the comments to see if any other "kids of LA" stumbled on it too. Hi, I too, grew up there (from 70's era) isn't it creepy to know that we all ran those dirty canyons care free while our parents had jobs that we all just were taught "He works at the lab."? In fact I don't think parent career day existed in school back then. 😂
@@taniahuff832 it’s good to meet another Los Alamos kid! And yes, my father still works for the lab and I have no idea what he does. I still couldn’t bring him in for career day 😂 when you were up there did you have the FBI showing up at your door asking questions because a neighbor was getting a Q clearance? Or was that more a post 9/11 thing? The stuff going on up there was and still continues to be ridiculous. Unfortunately I’ve also met a lot of “labbies” who were indifferent or down right negligent to their kids because the lab filled up their whole life. Hopefully your situation growing up there was a little better.
As much as I hate to think it, regardless of the morals of his actions, he was dead, and the knowledge gained is litterly the basis for our understanding of mass radiation exposure today. I van fault him, but would I have stoped him myself given a chance? No.
@@NPCGamerGuys That's a completely different argument- he never claimed some Utilitarian/ Greater good principle. He claimed a deity gave him PERMISSION to do such a thing. If a man prioritises a voice in his head over law then he is a danger to those around him.
Can we talk about how key Eilee Welsome was in this? She singlehandedly did the deep-diving necessary to bring a cruel, concealed practice to light. Serious applause to her and her work.
@@Skyblade12 tbf, many journalists who do great work exposing terrible crimes can lose their lives when whoever they reported on catches wind of it and sends assassins. Yes, it happens. I can’t blame them for not wanting to expose shit when they’re at risk of being killed
"Well then, Mr Clerence... Guess what "god" just gave ME permission to do. I'll give you a hint, you will not enjoy it and it will not be over quickly."
14:57 Having worked extensively with scientists, if they would have just asked the family for permission to run the experiments, I bet the family would have consented. Really sad they didn't have enough respect for their colleague to ask the family and get permission.
Based on some of the grosser comments on this video, the prevailing attitude seems to be “better to ask forgiveness than permission” and “the ends justify the means”. There’s a reason the evil scientist bent on discovery no matter the cost trope exists. The movie Extreme Measures made in 1996 is about this same ethical debate.
@@IsaRican810 I think that in the case where the means don't have an actual impact on anyone, the ends do justify the means(because the means aren't that bad). The plutonium injection experiments are completely different, and are bad. But taking sample from a dead body(that you had no hand in its death), whose organs can't be used to directly used, for the sake of saving people causes no harm at all.
@@joenelson4193 If they do an autopsy that the relatives agreed to, I would agree that taking samples for research is okay, it should be stated clearly what amount would be taken. Some general notice in the papers like "up to 100g of internal tissue samples may be taken for ressearch purposes" would suffice imo. But if I wanted my deceased relatives not to be cut open, they shouldn't be cut open.
@@LuLeBe I just see it as a dead body, I don't really care what happens to it and it doesn't impact you(unless you place unwarranted value on a dead body, allowing yourself to be burdened mentally).
@@joenelson4193 To the family, it's more than just a dead body. It's the body of a father, a son, a husband, and a friend. From the outset, you are as dead now as you will be in a billion years. You are just a bunch of matter in a shape you assign meaning to, and while you are currently capable of doing things with some illusion of autonomy so is a river as it carves out a ravine. There were people who assigned meaning to that body in the same way you do to yourself, and there is an amount of respect they should have been provided as a result.
To put Cecil through the pain of collecting bone marrow collection whilst he was still alive is shameful. At the very least they could have done this during the autopsy. I get studying Cecil, but gutting and deboning him like a fish is unconscionable. "The God Givin Gift" defense.
Well, if they did it as it is the standard with needle aspiration for marrow or trephine biopsy for core bone, then it is mostly benigne, we use Xiline (same anesthesia fir tooth extraction) to numb the skin (and I one did it with cryo anesthesia for somone poly allergic to them). No major pain during or after procedure, and just a mild discomfort locally after that... But if they had gone and did a bone segment extraction, that is an entirely other can of worms, and that hurts like hell, and the iradiated patient usually is resistant even to opioids.
im not being cruel, just rational, but what does it matter, he was gonna die anyway 👀 severe cases like these, they must be used for scientific research for what to do in future situations like this. this is significant for science
@@enijac6573 So you'd approve if somebody tortured you to death rather than just killing you? As somebody else noted, they could have done the bone marrow collection during his autopsy rather than while he was still alive.
I am KDS4444. I created the diagram of the mixing vessel's vortex used in this video, and I created and wrote most of the extant Wikipedia article on this incident. The whole thing still brings me to tears. Well done, Kyle.
hey man dont know if your still active on this channel but id like to ask if you have any info on cecil's wife being at his bedside as kyle says in the video since i can only find info on her only being notified after he had died and she didnt even know he had been hit with ratiation while he was still alive. i also find it strange that in a place so top secret they would even allow a bedside visit to take place.
What would be learned from the testing of organs from an exposure like that would be valuable. He was basically jelly. He should have asked and explained why. It was something that needed to be examined. Mayonnaise jars though, its a freaking lab and thats all he could find.
@@1014p I think people are getting freaked out on little stuff like the Hellman's jars (great name, hunh?) and forgetting the big picture. An industrial accident happened causing life-ending injuries to a worker. Such accidents have to be evaluated and studied so as to prevent more of the same from happening to anyone else. Rather than focus on the aspect of the doctor removing tissue, violating the poor victim's body, one might consider him like an organ donor. Maybe one day his tragic loss and study of the radiation damage could save countless other lives. Just as one motorcyclist (organ donor) can possibly save 2-3 liver transplant recipients, 2 kidney donors, corneal and eye transplants, skin, bone and connective tissues can help reconstruct a number of others, too. Out of tragedy, hope and life can flower. If we want to get angry about it, fine, there's lots of reasons to be. But if you ask me, there's a huge amount of good, too. Maybe if the truth came out, and along with the paltry few million the victim's families had to split in the civil settlement they and their lost loved ones received the thanks of a grateful and sympathetic world, we could find something like a silver (though still slightly radioactive) lining to this dark cloud.
@Don Cely have you heard of medical ethics? By your rationale, a great many things could be done to other humans if it serves a "greater good." This is a slippery slope indeed, which is why informed consent is so important.
Pretty much every stage of this situation was devoid of basic ethics. "Let's just inject some folks with Plutonium" Somewhere, Mengele's corpse got a thrill. (Edit: and at the time he got an unexpected tingle, guess I was wishcasting his demise as being more proximate to the atrocities)
The scariest thing is not what you know, or what you don't know. There are things that you know, and things you _know_ that you _don't_ know... But we vastly underestimate the size of our ignorance... The scariest thing is the thing _you don't know_ that you don't know... The monsters you don't know you have to fear. The stories you don't know you haven't listened. The horrors you haven't even paused to imagine... The darkness is full of answers. Answers without questions.
I grew up in Albuquerque. My dad worked at Los Alamos, Kirtland AFB, and later at the Hanford Site in WA. He was a geologist. He drilled out massive cores of the earth’s surface to be tested for radioactive material as well as other purposes. I’ve seen some of the huge earth cores. They were as long as a semi truck trailer, and piled as high. My dad said he never drilled a core that wasn’t contaminated. My dad had cancer three times, the third case was very sadly his last. The federal government sent him tiny little checks to reimburse him for the healthcare costs. To get the checks he had to have both a DOE contracted doctor and a private doctor examine his case and determine that yes, his cancer was a result of his work at those sites. These people contaminated the entire earth by testing nuclear weapons. The earth’s leaders have since tested over 2000 nuclear bombs and counting. This gross shortsightedness has changed life and death for all living things forever. That’s what our taxes pay for. Deception and death.
I am a 63 year old xray tech and ALARA rules of radiation protection were YEARS away. I've had cancer twice, ages 40 and 53. They told us we were being "monitored ", like that was our protection. Then they send me a survey to do with bloodwork I have to pay for on my own and send to them YEA RIGHT F.U.NRC
@@1snivy10the power of revolution and violence en masse, the government fears us, and rightly so. If 500k people marched on DC it things would change. That’s why they try and keep this shit secret as long as they can.
@@umocnicdiscographydictumri4578 it is quite a controversial topic. On the long run yes his way might have had positive effects on future scientific studies but on the short run what he did was truly unethical and way beyond the boundaries of ethics we have built around us. History has indeed shown that sometimes the most unethical decision is the best one in the long run however in certain scenarios the consequences in the short run might outweigh the results of the long run...now that is simply an opinion don't go hard on it
@@Noobscodee I agree but would add that if we want that kind of progress than the masses shouldn't be informed or at the most be given very small bits of information enough to satiate their hunger and to keep them under control
@@sajadhoxhaj6603 Yeah, I don't support his decision at all to do what he did, especially without permission - I think he was in the wrong for how it was done. Although for the actual act, there is an argument to be made that it is worthwhile to turn Kelly's already-terrible accident into something good for all, since he was already a loss. Kelly, in a way, still had a chance to contribute something very meaningful and lasting to the world and to medicine. In that way, Kelly should be remembered for his sacrifice and *not* Lushbaugh. It is terrible that he or his family were never given the decision though. So, both things can be true, Lushbaugh did an unspeakably terrible things, and Kelly made a huge contribution (unwillingly) with his last moments because of it. Maybe it is unethical for others to ever receive or benefit those contributions because of how they were gained, but once everything happened - there was no saving Kelly, and there was no un-desecrating his remains. Lushbaugh was wrong, and we should never do what he did, but we cannot erase it either.
@@Noobscodee That would be and is a irresponsible notion. They knew back then what they were doing was unethical. To take remains without next of kin's permission or more importantly, to inject a well established poison into a unsuspecting victim is the poster child for what not to do. They already knew what the outcome would be. Death. There is no curative measure. The only treatment is to not get exposed. No learning curve there and BTW, they already knew that before this incident. So was anything earthshattering learned? No. Medical ethics is in place to prevent human experimentation as was done in WWII, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and in this instance.
GAGAGAGAGAAGAG this is wonderful! PRANK! It is terrible! I looked in the mirror and saw something UNPRETTY: my face. GAGAGAGAG! But I am happy again because I have TWO HOT GIRLFRIENDS and I make cool YT videos with them! Good evening, love and peace, dear cris
My grandfather's younger brother worked on the Manhattan Project, assembling the bomb. He said that he thought the soldiers were being experimented on without their knowledge. Now I understand that he wasn't kidding or being paranoid.
Honestly, the moment they knew he was beyond saving, they should have told him and asked for permission to learn all they can while minimizing pain. If I were in Cecil's position, and they were honest, I'd have said, "Do it. Save as many lives as you can."
You have to remember this is 1958. These incidents were rare and we didn't know what we know now. Too many people look at these incidents with retrospect. These doctors were just punting and its happened throughout medical history. Medicine has a dark past and present.
@@idiotidiot5821 exactly, you'd be surprised what people will do for the sake of others if you give them honesty and treat them like people. And besides even if this guy just wanted to die instead of being tested on he should've been given that right. Its not his responsibility to suffer for the sake of others. There's no excuse for what happened here.
@@NASkeywest These tests don't relate to nuclear weapons or even nuclear power generation. The things to be learned from this were to do with the effects of radiation on humans. Which were used to increase safety of those working with radioactive materials. That doesn't justify what they did. But I hope that clarifies things for you.
@@aggressivereindeer3200 the means didn't have to happen as they did. They could have at least asked permission, and probably gotten it. Tell their family that the body will be used for the scientific research. Edit: permission isn't required, actually, because of how many lives it would save. Instead telling the family should at least be enough, along with compensation perhaps. If doing bad causes good, but there is a morally superior option that is less bad, anyone who does the latter should be hated.
If "god gave me permission" is a good enough excuse for Clarence to steal organs, then it's damn well good enough for me, when it comes to having just one more slice of pizza.
@@RusselKabirTR personally I see what you're trying to say here. you mean to say he doesn't necessarily sees himself as God either but rather, he himself think it was the right thing to do and given the chance would probably do it again. still, that just makes him as bad or worse in my book
If one was educated enough to know what the "blue light" is and means, then yes, a completely horrible situation to think about. But then, to the uneducated, it can be a wonderful curiosity. Look up the Goiania incident... Some thieves stole an unguarded Radiotherapy machine, disassembled it, got the radioactive Cesium 137 core out of it, and witnessed the same "blue glow"(Cherenkov radiation) and thought it was perhaps a valuable "gemstone" or something "supernatural". Ignorant to it's real effects, the participants were excited and played with the poison until they all received a fatal dose, got sick, and eventually died as a result. I guess ignorance CAN be bliss, until you have to pay the price, that is.
My dad was working at Los Alamos when Cecil Kelly died. My dad didn’t know him, but it certainly came as a shock to hear of the accident. I remember him telling me about it some 40 years ago, and Kelly’s words: “I’m burning up! I’m burning up!” That always creeped me out.
What's going on NOW with this "Corona Virus" will top ALL the things that Humans ever did, including the Nazis and any testing on humans. For an example : In the 90's German prisoners did get tons of fresh food, only to find out what food contains the EHEC Virus. How i could tell that ? I WAS in prison that time for 1 year (not guilty). I never trust ANY form of "Government" in ANY part of the world ! ACAB !
@@natan5425 Aw gee, I was so hoping Natan Gomes would come on here and validate me. 😂 But to give some background to those who may be interested. I was born in 61. My dad served in the Navy in the South China Sea in WWII, he used the GI Bill to get a Masters in Physical Chemistry from Baylor, then went to work at Los Alamos after graduating. He later got a job as a researcher for ORNL in Oak Ridge, and I was born in Knoxville. I moved to Maryland when I was ten because my dad got a job at the AEC in Bethesda in 1972, now known as the NRC. He was the project manager for various nuclear power plants around the country; Quad Cities, Hanford, and San Onofre, just to name a few. Please believe me, Natan. I need your validation… Phag! 🤣. 🍆
It’s horrifying to think about how many cruel and unethical experiments have taken place that we don’t and never will know about. Had it not been for one journalist coming across those documents this whole thing would have never been exposed. I’m 100% sure there are thousands of past and current horrible human experiments going on all over the world, the vast majority of we will never hear about nor will the victims get justice.
Radiation burns like that are like a bad sunburn but through your entire body Which has very sensitive tissues such as bone marrow Most of your cells are “dead” and can’t repair themselves. The neutrophils get replaced every six hours so they go fast and so do red blood cells which rely on the bone marrow to replace them every 120 days. Your stomach and gastric cells are very often replaced to stop them from being damaged by enzymes and acid in the stomach and intestines. These will die very quickly from the radiation. Lungs are also quite sensitive due to their structure. So basically if you see a blue flash in a nuclear zone Your organs will melt quickly. Muscles and skin can work fine after the initial burns but will fail eventually Imagine if someone made a gamma ray weapon that would shoot a beam of radiation in one direction
@@captainahab5522 "imagine if someone made a gamma ray weapon that would shoot a beam in one direction". Man, that would be the worst. Much, much worse than atomic bombs. If a country manages to succeeds in making such a device, they could mount it on a satellite 🛰 and assassinate political rivals(and other people) from space. There would be no defence from such a weapon,no warning, nothing,not until its too late.
@@captainahab5522 And this is relevant to my comment... how? Like, yeah it's factually correct, but... there are a million othe comments you could've posted this to and it would've been better fitting. this is just an exposition dump, dumped on my joke comment.
@@AJ-jq3hm yeah I was imagining a rocket launcher like thing, but a satellite mounted one would be absolutely terrifying Just imagine a government building where the people are talking about something political and one starts sweating and then more of them One rushes out of the room and throws up and another breaks down with a burning fever They all die within a week. A device like that could be fuels by a dissolved plutonium salt and cooled with water There was a plan to make a laser like that using a nuclear bomb but that is impractical. A dense non metallic material could focus the beam
Kyle, ever heard about the Cesium-137 incident in Brazil? It's a pretty dark story about the danger of radiation and the lack of public knowledge of this danger
Yea but that would run counter to almost any government run education. If you notice there are approved topics in history which push a message. Example are the Nazi's are evil look at all the horror they commited but ignore the outlier of John Rabe. But at the same time Japans war crimes are largely ignored, due to them now being allied with the Western powers. Or the fact that Africa's slave trade was built upon the tribal warfare that happened in that area and rarely was "whites" going out and capturing villages (did happen but not anyway near as much as the tribes trading them). Or the crusades vs the jihad. Most topics need to be discussed to offer true in site into human nature as there are many people who will act in self sacrifice and many others who are classed as evil. National borders only really effect what ethics are accepted as the norm not if evil or good occurs inside them.
What an infuriating story. There was much to learn from Kelly’s death, but to do so without permission from the next of kin is a grave breach of scientific ethics.
I like these kinds of lower toned informational videos Kyle. The science videos with silliness about robots and stuff is great but I do enjoy seeing this other side of your presentation ability.
@@fudgeknuckle952 I think he's talking less about it being censored, and more advocating that it be taught In schools, or at least made more widely known.
I'm definitely conflicted about the bodies being studied, obviously without permission is hella wrong, but at the same time the information learned from their bodies can go to help better treat those exposed. And of course given the choice no one wants their family member be dissected especially so in the 1950s. And given the fact these circumstances don't arise often the possibility with permission to analyze a body would be extremely low. These studies are what led to our current understanding of radiation exposure today, which may have even led to saving many, many lives. Again I don't forgive nor think these people were right, just pointing out the moral dilemma. Is the cost of a families loved one being dissected without consent not worth the many lives saved by the information gathered?
@@Tbal_96 But the thing is they didn't know it would've have lead to life-saving information, because it was unknown. They didn't know what they didn't know. They just took a shot in the dark, and that shot killed a man and separated him from his own rights and family. He didn't even get a say in it.
@@chaosincarnate7304 No that shit didn't killed anyone, he already was 100% dead after the accident. And I can completely understand the reason to analyze the body, because this was a situation that is very a rare and there is no other ethical way to get data like this. I found the information about other people getting plutonium injected without them knowing much worse and awful, even if they didn't die, because they didn't knew about it and where perfectly fine before.
@@GoblinUrNuts They never knew they would get anything that would progress us forward from snatching a corpse and experimenting on it. Yet you pretend like the family wanting their loved ones corpse so they can mourn is evil because it stopped a HUUGE progression of humanity and they knew it (they didn't) . Why didn't they ask the family for the body? If they didn't, just look for someone else. They just took the easy and unethical way out which isn't an excuse for any scientist when a more, direct way even if it is hard can get you the same if not more information. They literally put his brains into mayo, that's cutting corners ain't it? But hey, shady governments and entities be shady...
@@Tbal_96 No, there is no “moral dilemma”. You notice not one of these evil scum injected themselves with this shit. Every single one of them should have been thrown into a reactor for a random length of time, then pulled out and studied if the information was so fucking precious. If the knowledge is only worth someone ELSE’S life, then it is not worth obtaining.
I think what surprises me the most about this is how (from the timeline in the video) Cecil lived for another 10 hours after his wife described his insides as "mush". Yeah those 10 hours were no doubt torture-- but you'd kinda expect for his body to completely shut down WAY sooner considering just how high of a dose he'd taken straight to the head/chest
"God gave me permission." Most. Discrediting line. Ever. Also most rage-inducing. He's one of those guys who would have had a line of people waiting to punch him in the face. I can understand wanting to take advantage of a unique situation for research, but any sympathy I may feel for such perspectives goes straight out the window when you start bringing up deities. Truly despicable.
As if it’d be any different if he was given permission from his government or was an atheist who did it strictly on his own accord without any ideology infecting his mind?
@@thatperformer3879 Apart from him trying to excuse his unethical experiments by putting the blame on his 'god', attempting to absolve himself of any responsibility. He was no better than those concentration camp guards who tried to use "I was only obeying orders" as an excuse.
@@thatperformer3879 yeah. It’s still kinda similar tho. The government shouldn’t have a right to anyone’s body, and could even use the same excuse so they both are sickos. If it was an atheist, their excuse wouldn’t be “god told me it’s all good”. They’d have some other gross reason, so I can’t say whether that reason would be as fundamentally infuriating. There’s just a LOT of problems wrong with blaming the whole thing on god.
That's the American mentality for you - write "god wills it" on a gun and pretend you're the good guys. At least this guy was performing shady experiments that might actually improve medicine at some point, but I still would question just how godly his actions were.
@@thatperformer3879 the difference is that its even more cowardly and slimy than pushing blame onto a superior. "God gave me permission" not only is EXTREMELY narcissistic, but it ends the discussion. The trail starts and ends with Clarence, noone gave him permission to do what he did, he just decided that he had the right to take away their rights to their own bodies. It speaks more to his heartlessness and his ego than it would if he just blamed a government or someone else. This dude thinks his actions were so righteous and noble that a god would stand by him. It doesn't change WHAT he did, but it tells us how deluded and self-absorbed he was, that defiling these corpses was something with zero shame, in his eyes, because he got his research. It's a very dangerous attitude to have and not one that should ever be present or encouraged in ethical research. Theres a reason we have these systems in place.
I read "The Plutonium Files" and what was done to the victims is appalling and disgusting. Especially appalling was what happened to a young boy from Australia. In all justice those at the upper levels of the experiments should have been prosecuted.
"God gave me permission." - Christ. What a monster. Edit: Yes. I'm fully aware that the scientific information was absolutely necessary to gather. That still doesn't make it okay. Injecting, testing, and removing the body parts/organs of a largely unsuspecting public (or their fellow employees) is disgusting. As for the doctor who stated the earlier quote.. he couldn't even regret that it was necessary. That's what I found appalling.
@@RobertMcBride-is-cool I was literally going to say that god themself is a monster in many ways; and if that's true then perhaps being human is to rise above nature or we'll always be the monsters among ourselves.
"Our scientists?" They're hardly alone, there's scumbags like that in every country in the world. Medicine and science both seem to attract psychopaths! I believe in them, I just think they need some serious oversight.
@@loganmpe7559 The original quote says your scientists, but yes, Our scientists fits better, as even the most brilliant minds can do inhumane things and try to justify it
Giving unknown shots of Plutonium to unsuspecting people to test their dead bodies later. Sounds kind of like back in my days the CIA giving GIs and other people doses of LSD without them having any knowledge of, or permission, to test their reactions. Ant the government wonders why so many people today reuse to get the Covid vaccine. What's really in it? Trust the government...hahaha, yeah right.
You wanna remain unknown because investigative journalists either dont exist or are severely nerfed and suing the government is pretty much impossible, go to communist countries
Like he said investigative journalism is the a thing of the past. All the scientists researchers and journalists are owned by the far left and theylle do and say what they’re told. Otherwise we may of heard exactly why our economy was ruined by a lab made China virus and why China is back up and running and we’re still doing the big circle jerk that is 2021 America
As someone with diagnosed ADHD, I'm always 100% paying attention and able to follow the your whole videos. I appreciate the way you explain the science with diagrams and precise images. Also the subtle music in the background really helps but never distracts. Wish i had you as a teacher for science growing up. I save all your videos and one day when i hope to teach others with ADHD/ADD i can use them. Much love and respect! Keep it up!
Me to im retired now 69 im thinking back lateley about life how i differ from others life was hard sometimes . but it gave me insight about others and i found most people are worse than i am ha ha.
@@alexanderherzog3064: The U.S.A.: Why make people suffer the consequences of their misdeeds when there's -CommiesTerroristsDemocrats- (insert name of next enemy here) to fight?!
Thanks for researching and producing this. I believe my family was part of the settlement you mention (grandfather worked in lab N5 from the 50s through the early 70s, DOE settlement for tissue samples without consent). This is more informative about what happened than anything I’ve seen previously, means a lot to me. (edit) I confirmed with my mother that her father was indeed part of the tissue analysis program in 1971, and we were part of the settlement. She just watched this and really appreciated the video, as it’s more context and information on this than she’s seen out there before. She’s on a hunt for the book you mentioned now (Los Alamos library probably has it if anywhere does). Thank you again
Wow. How insane to be the descendant of someone who was such a major part of history- a dark part of history, but very important history nonetheless. I hope you teach your children when they’re old enough about what happened to their great grandfather and why consent is so important.
The most fascinating thing about Cecils scenario is that if he wasn't standing on the footstool and staring into the vessel, he may not have recieved the fatal dose of radiation.
If he was anywhere near that vessel, the burst of radiation would have killed him. If the tank was critical for a long enough period, the blast of radiation could have been fatal to everyone else in the building with him.
@@taraswertelecki3786that’s not actually how it works. Sometimes (and in this case) radiation moves in straight line. You are correct that most of the time it’s an explosion that goes everywhere. But there’s rare cases where radiation only hits a certain spot. Can’t remember his name but there’s a case where a huge amount of radiation only passed though his face. He actually lived a long life, but has health problems. And half his face never aged. Anatoli Bugorski. I went ahead and looked up his name. Worth the study it’s an interesting case.
@taraswertelecki3786 to my understanding, radiation is, well, radiating. Therefore, the closer you are to a criticality, especially without any barriers to absorb it, the danger increases exponentially.
I think this is correct. It was shown in the Hisashi Ouchi incident where the boss sitting at the desk did receive a lower dose that was not lethal to him. Distance from the source goes a long way.
I think he was saying it was a clear moral/ethical choice. Assuming there was a reason he couldn't tell the families what the samples were for (most everything at Los Alamos was highly classified), I don't disagree. BTW: Seems like he did get permission to take samples in other cases, but didn't say what they were for. PS: As for the injection experiment... That was just very wrong, but was done by different people that this guy taking samples from corpses. Frankly odd to me how those very different experiments and ethical situations are connected (almost conflated) in the telling of the story. Guess "body snatchers" is just a good headline/clickbait.
Sweet mercy, this is haunting. In my head, I imagine this as the worst sunburn you could get, but all the way through you. Thinking about the way skin peels, blisters, and sloughs off from those burns (and that's with the layer of our bodies *meant* to be exposed to the outside) and projecting that all the way inside your chest... This sounds like an absolutely horrible way to die, especially since this didn't kill him instantly. Imagine experiencing this, FEELING this happen to you... There are no words to express this properly...
Hisashi Ouchi was kept alive for almost 3 months after a similar experience because his family insisted to the doctors they save him, learning about that accident made me question what is empathy.
It makes me wonder if something similar happened to the man in the Japanese super critical radiation accident. His body had so much radition in it even afterwards that there's no way it could have just been a lot of gamma radiation.
Man! Cecil Kelly took one HELL of a wallop of Gamma rays and neutrons directly to his head and center body mass. I couldn't even IMAGINE how that felt physically AND mentally. And then mentally again after he figured out what had actually happened, and knew of his fate to come. An ordeal like that would be an extremely horrible thing for any human to have to experience. R.I.P. Cecil. 😞
@@taraswertelecki3786 No. 4000 Rads is approximately 4 times the lethal dose. 1000 or more Rads is the dose rate that is considered to be the "Lethal dose rate" for a human being, although people HAVE survived more. 500 Rads is what's considered to be the dose rate for the onset of symptoms of "Acute Radiation Sickness".
@@davelowets Sorry, not true. Any health physicist will tell you that 1,000 rads is way beyond the lethal dose, and you'll be dead in less than ten days, two weeks at the most.
This is the most horrifying video I have ever watched. I've experienced such a bone-deep horror as I did when you described Cecil's symptoms, the bone marrow biopsy, and the way his body was treated. This story is so awful, and the way you told it perfectly highlighted every detail in a way that I will 100% never forget anything about it.
Since this series started every time i hear the words "a blue flash" i get chills down my spine and an unnerving sense of dread and fatality. Very well conveyed how terrifying such a death sentence is.
The only reason that such atrocities like these keep happening again and again throughout our history is because people cannot accept that there are fellow humans out there who are actually this evil. This is the ultimate form of evil and when it’s already happened once they then get the notion that we’ve learned from it and that it’s impossible for it to ever occur again: this is the greatest of our flaws.
This discussion about how these people didn't know that they were being experimented on reminds of a nonfiction book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is about a woman whose cancer cells were taken by her doctor without her knowledge. The cells became super important in cellular biology and cancer research. I'm definitely adding The Plutonium Files to my to read list now.
"When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and the doctor was never heard from again! Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license, heh." -TF2 Medic 2011
yeh. just imagine what kind of reaction US would have given if another country had done intentional human experiments like this. you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villan
@@atafakheri8659 The US helped cover up and pardoned human "experimentation" and extreme torture, including vivisections without anesthesia, on prisoners and mentally handicapped people by the Japanese government during WWII.
Your videos are amazing! Could you perhaps do a short documentary on Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination with Polonium 210? That story has stuck with me since childhood and I think your amazing storytelling would really make it come to life.
ok, two things i have learned. all containers involved in nuclear chemical processing should be proofed for the worst case contents. secondly someone should always be on hand with a 22 pistol if someone gets over a certain dosage, so you dont have to experience the following process.
I have a copy of "The Plutonium Files" that came in a bunch of boxes of books from my dad. I've not read even half of the books he gave me, but I recognize the cover. My dad was a Marine with high level security clearance (still won't tell us why) and was fascinated by stories like this.
Unfortunately, Military operatives can't give out the reasons why they had clearance willy-nilly, I guess. :( There are a lot of mysteries with my dad and he won't tell me why he was so high-security either.
My paternal grandfather was a computer programmer for the USAF in the 60’s and 70’s. He never showed my Dad anything, but between the silence about his job and a variety of insights about the expense and wild impracticality of using satellites for domestic spying, we are pretty sure what he did.
Read the book! It is both fascinating and terrifying, particularly in the revelations of the incredible arrogance of the doctors and military personnel who conducted these experiments. I used to discuss portions of it with my high school students when we were studying nuclear chemistry and the ethics of its use.
The first story of Cecil Kelly shook me so much I forgot this was about injection experiments until they were brought up again. These people were super villains
No. They weren't lol. And their work has probably save thousands more lives. Unethical? Debatable in Cecil's case. Not so for the others, what they did was wrong. But imo the results where worth it.
I think the most disturbing part of this whole story is the mere fact that if permission had actually been received from the families of the deceased, then this would have been a very different tale, tone-wise.
I just stumbled upon this channel and find it excellent. It seems to be thoroughly researched and is professionally presented. You have a great speaking voice, Kyle.
A very similar event happened in RI. Dude perished by accidentally inducing criticality at a nuclear fuel recycling plant and his widow was given ashes that she swears up and down did not belong to him because they never registered as even slightly radioactive.
They don’t give you bones when they give you the ashes. With those in the trash, whatever they took the scoop out of was going to be pretty close to normal as far as radiation is concerned.
This makes my blood run cold. As an Army brat, I received many injections when my family was deployed overseas in the seventies and eighties. I never questioned those shots, until today.
Radiation burns are like having sunburns but inside your organs and bone marrow which is nasty. Those shots are probably just vaccines But I don’t really trust the us to not use it’s citizens as test subjects like it has many times
The first time I heard about this accident was in the Atomic Accidents book. Its a scary read and increcibly interesting read, and this one scenario is horrible. The fact that he became a mush is incredible. The power of nature's byproducts, especially when it goes wrong, is quite mind boggling.
Thank you for this. My father passed away recently and we loved your show on BS so much. I've gotten comfort watching you mini-docs to help distract me. Good work and keep it up Kyle. We even watched the Demon Core episode together.
Hey I kinda know how you feel, me and my dad would talk about nuclear bombs and the science behind them and stuff, and he left us about a year ago. I hope all is well man
I cant imagine the pain that man went through during this whole ordeal... "I'm burning!" Has to be one of the worst ways to go out... I just, just wow. 😔😭
@@frozi7711 I dunno, getting your insides turned to mush while you're still alive would be absolutely awful. At least a lot of other forms of painful death are quicker.
death by radiation poisoning is practically the definition of "dead man walking". the moment you receive that lethal dose, it's over, there's no saving you. that's what makes it so terrifying. honestly, if i were ever hit with a lethal dose, id request to be euthanized. id already be dead, but at least i wouldnt suffer that way.
I grew up in Los Alamos in the 90's and had never heard of this. The Demon Core was almost common knowledge but this really was covered up. If only they had just asked Cecil Kelley or his family to study the effects of this accident. I don't expect Cecil to say "No cremate me so I can spread my radioactive bone mush in the air rather than further our knowledge to protect ourselves from this.".
alot of people wouldve said yes to that because of what they saw. they saw their family suffer at the hands of a radioactive incident, and if letting scientists study the body will help people avoid the same fate, it would be an offer thats hard to turn down
What a heartbreaking story! God bless Cecil Kelley's soul. May he rest in peace. May perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of the faithful departed through the Mercy of God rest in peace, Amen. I fear there's no rest in peace for mr. clarence lushbaugh. I'm an RN. I care for the dying in their homes. I've watched a lot of people die. There's definitely a heaven and a hell. God have Mercy on that doctor and those indifferent people who subjected so many people to suffering for the sake of 'science.' Even the sheep didn't deserve it.
This is truly a horrific story and my heart goes out to the family of this unfortunate man, (not to mention him for all he had to suffer.) However, if that was me, and if studying my remains might lead to lives being saved, my last words might be: "Go to Costco, you can get bigger jars there."
I'm with you on that. If life-saving information can be gained from my tragic demise, do what you have to. But it's definitely important to let people know what's going on.
The lack of consent in the injection experiment made me think of that "feeding kids radioactive oatmeal" thing Kellogg's did. The kids had all been either orphaned or abandoned by their parents, and as far as I could see, nothing was done in regards to actually getting permission, or informing anybody about what was going on. Might make an interesting addition to the half-life histories.
Oh man. Guys I just wanna say that I love you all. This community feels like home and it feels awesome to be a part of this channel, even though I'm just a mere subscriber. The content on the channel, the comments, the creativity and positivity here is something I don't want to miss, ever. Just wanted to say that I'm grateful for that. I just woke up at 10 am, went into the kitchen and realized that my stove was on since 12 yesterday and it was on full blast for 22 hours straight without burning the house down. Thank the basilisk it is a quality made stove top and kitchen, because there weren't even smoke detectors installed in the house. The old ones were thrown out and the new ones aren't here yet. With a little less luck I wouldn't be writing this. Now I don't need a new house or be reborn again, I just need to replace my warped stove. 😅
I left a burner on once... fortunately I discovered it soon after and turned it off, when I went back to the kitchen for something else. But I'm a little worried - what if it happens another time, and I go to bed, or fall asleep in front of the tv, before I discover it? I hope I'm not getting Alzheimers....
I just woke up at 3:50am to get some water and I seen this video, thinking it would be a good video to fall asleep to.......I was DEAD FN WRONG. I feel like I’m having a panic attack.
@@tilburg8683 I was about to make some sort of smartass comment to myself about watching it at an ill-advised time... When I realized that I just fucking watched this video at 02:00am. Why the hell did I do that?
@@doge8726 The operative word is "always." Sometimes bad things happen when people are trying to do good things. But that's different from reckless endangerment and rampant secrecy. This research could have been done aboveboard, but it wasn't. All that had to be done was ask: "Can we take tissue samples from Mr. Kelly's body to study how severe plutonium exposure impacts the body?" "Would you be willing to receive a non-lethal injection of plutonium so we can figure out where it collects in the body?" "Will you give us permission to take tissue samples from your family member for a study on radiation exposure?" All of those questions could have been asked, and the good the experiments led to would not have been compromised (except maybe the injection experiments, because doing something that risky is probably not allowed under the hippocratic oath followed by doctors). What would have changed was the damage to public trust and goodwill that makes any future research harder.
Why egoistical? he does not pursue any personal gain and for sure knew that he will face consequences when this will become public. It is people who uses that incident to get some free money are egoistical.
@@GoblinUrNuts As long as the person working on the body solely does this to save others from a similar gruesome death, i agree, although if they were still alive and experimented on, they would need consent from the person
"The human plutonium injection experiments" sounds like some of the most unethical science experiments ever done. Thank you for sharing this story, Kyle.
I think unit 731 takes the cake for that honestly
Mengele's experiments during WWII probably qualify as the most unethical and horrific of all time, although Japan's Unit 731 is a close second. (They did vivisections of prisoners who were alive and awake, among other atrocities.) But for the US alone the Tuskegee experiments were probably the most unethical. African-American men infected with syphilis were not only untreated (penicillin existed already), they were lied to and told they _had_ been treated. This went on for _40 years_, until someone leaked information about the experiments to the press, and at least 128 of the men in the experiments died thanks to them.
@Grim FPV Government is the single largest cause of death in history.
Did you ever hear about the ricin experiments that the CIA did?
@@konanhonim3111 you mean where vaccines cause adults
The fact that Cecil was still talking and consoling his wife and giving her instruction to care for their children, all while his insides were turning to goop, were liquefied, shows that he was EXTREMELY strong of will. What a bad ass father. No crying for salvation, just, "I will die. I need to console my wife." Outstanding.
He may have known he already had salvation; we should.
I agree he was a strong, very brave man. This has always been one of the saddest radiation accidents imo.
Man was made of steel. Although I think if I were in his place, I'd want to console my partners, too.
Bravery was very common back in those days, both in men and women. The greatest generation was strong and perseverent, unlike today's spineless crybabies who need safe spaces and worry about their "feelings" every waking moment. RIP to Cecil Kelley : a true man, husband, father and patriot.
@@SevenSixTwo2012 Cecil Kelley didn't melt from the inside out so you could call people "spineless crybabies" on the internet. He'd be mortified that you used his unimaginable suffering to justify pointless mockery.
@@abc-wv4in We should? Should what?
“it was mush” i think is the most disturbing part of this. The fact that someones body can get to that point and them still be alive is horrifying.
yeah, right? We humans are weird, at times we are the most fragile of all mammals, and then whe can survive and be conscious for a few hours with parts of our bodies being turned into mush because of gamma rays.
That part made me so fucking uneasy...
Makes me want to eat a nice Moon Pie.
@@RCAvhstape -me too....
@dylan what is the name of that documentary bro is it on TH-cam?
I grew up in Los Alamos. My father works there. They didn’t clean up the radioactive dumping ground known as “Acid Canyon” until I was in middle school (2010s). The run off leads right to the Rio Grande. In my experience, the money and power given to the scientists at Los Alamos still gives them a god complex and unbreakable loyalty to the lab. There are generations of families working there that carry the legacy and, unfortunately, the apathy to fellow human beings that you just saw in the video.
I stumbled on this and scrolled the comments to see if any other "kids of LA" stumbled on it too. Hi, I too, grew up there (from 70's era) isn't it creepy to know that we all ran those dirty canyons care free while our parents had jobs that we all just were taught "He works at the lab."? In fact I don't think parent career day existed in school back then. 😂
@@taniahuff832 it’s good to meet another Los Alamos kid! And yes, my father still works for the lab and I have no idea what he does. I still couldn’t bring him in for career day 😂 when you were up there did you have the FBI showing up at your door asking questions because a neighbor was getting a Q clearance? Or was that more a post 9/11 thing? The stuff going on up there was and still continues to be ridiculous. Unfortunately I’ve also met a lot of “labbies” who were indifferent or down right negligent to their kids because the lab filled up their whole life. Hopefully your situation growing up there was a little better.
I grew up in Los Alamos and have no idea what you are talking about? God complex? Doesn't describe the scientist I know...
@@ianjohnson7646you are too deluded to see it
@Sceptonic I think you’re deluded for making inferences about someone you don’t even know
"God gave me permission"
"....Right, you're going to have to show us that memo"
I wonder if roasting in Hell he regrets that statement?
@@TheMythandLegend I don’t believe in hell but stories like this make me hope I’m wrong
As much as I hate to think it, regardless of the morals of his actions, he was dead, and the knowledge gained is litterly the basis for our understanding of mass radiation exposure today. I van fault him, but would I have stoped him myself given a chance? No.
@@NPCGamerGuys That's a completely different argument- he never claimed some Utilitarian/ Greater good principle. He claimed a deity gave him PERMISSION to do such a thing.
If a man prioritises a voice in his head over law then he is a danger to those around him.
"Sir, why did you stab this man fourteen times?"
"It's okay officer, my imaginary friend Roger gave me permission".
Can we talk about how key Eilee Welsome was in this? She singlehandedly did the deep-diving necessary to bring a cruel, concealed practice to light. Serious applause to her and her work.
Back when journalists weren’t just propagandists.
@Skyblade12
If you think there was ever a time journalists weren't propagandists, I invite you to look at the entire history of propaganda in media.
@@Skyblade12 you are 16
@@Skyblade12 tbf, many journalists who do great work exposing terrible crimes can lose their lives when whoever they reported on catches wind of it and sends assassins.
Yes, it happens. I can’t blame them for not wanting to expose shit when they’re at risk of being killed
@@squidyplays1963 probably younger
clarence: “don’t worry, i have a permit”
cecil’s family: “this just says ‘i can do what i want’”
Isn't that in a movie too? Lol
@@happyfacefries A show, Parks and Recreation.
Literally the "I made the fuck up" source guy
"Well then, Mr Clerence... Guess what "god" just gave ME permission to do. I'll give you a hint, you will not enjoy it and it will not be over quickly."
@@83fleafan calm down Timmy
14:57 Having worked extensively with scientists, if they would have just asked the family for permission to run the experiments, I bet the family would have consented. Really sad they didn't have enough respect for their colleague to ask the family and get permission.
Based on some of the grosser comments on this video, the prevailing attitude seems to be “better to ask forgiveness than permission” and “the ends justify the means”. There’s a reason the evil scientist bent on discovery no matter the cost trope exists. The movie Extreme Measures made in 1996 is about this same ethical debate.
@@IsaRican810 I think that in the case where the means don't have an actual impact on anyone, the ends do justify the means(because the means aren't that bad).
The plutonium injection experiments are completely different, and are bad. But taking sample from a dead body(that you had no hand in its death), whose organs can't be used to directly used, for the sake of saving people causes no harm at all.
@@joenelson4193 If they do an autopsy that the relatives agreed to, I would agree that taking samples for research is okay, it should be stated clearly what amount would be taken. Some general notice in the papers like "up to 100g of internal tissue samples may be taken for ressearch purposes" would suffice imo. But if I wanted my deceased relatives not to be cut open, they shouldn't be cut open.
@@LuLeBe I just see it as a dead body, I don't really care what happens to it and it doesn't impact you(unless you place unwarranted value on a dead body, allowing yourself to be burdened mentally).
@@joenelson4193 To the family, it's more than just a dead body. It's the body of a father, a son, a husband, and a friend. From the outset, you are as dead now as you will be in a billion years. You are just a bunch of matter in a shape you assign meaning to, and while you are currently capable of doing things with some illusion of autonomy so is a river as it carves out a ravine. There were people who assigned meaning to that body in the same way you do to yourself, and there is an amount of respect they should have been provided as a result.
I don't like it when you make the screen black for a long period of time, my face is the scariest thing you could possibly show me
I always think the video is lagging then i tap the screen and accedently pause the vid
I can agree with YOUR statement about YOUR face
Ooooh self burn!
Shhhh be kind to you warrior, relish the moments you get to look deep into your own soul in spontaneous self reflection.
god gave you a few seconds to reflect upon yourself
To put Cecil through the pain of collecting bone marrow collection whilst he was still alive is shameful. At the very least they could have done this during the autopsy. I get studying Cecil, but gutting and deboning him like a fish is unconscionable. "The God Givin Gift" defense.
Yes, and lying to him that they wanted to do the bone marrow transplant.. just pure evil..
Well, if they did it as it is the standard with needle aspiration for marrow or trephine biopsy for core bone, then it is mostly benigne, we use Xiline (same anesthesia fir tooth extraction) to numb the skin (and I one did it with cryo anesthesia for somone poly allergic to them). No major pain during or after procedure, and just a mild discomfort locally after that... But if they had gone and did a bone segment extraction, that is an entirely other can of worms, and that hurts like hell, and the iradiated patient usually is resistant even to opioids.
im not being cruel, just rational, but what does it matter, he was gonna die anyway 👀 severe cases like these, they must be used for scientific research for what to do in future situations like this. this is significant for science
And yet people still remain surprised when Doctors lie for personal gain.
@@enijac6573 So you'd approve if somebody tortured you to death rather than just killing you? As somebody else noted, they could have done the bone marrow collection during his autopsy rather than while he was still alive.
When you find yourself carrying a mayonnaise jar with some guy's brain in it, it's time to seriously question your life choices.
It's not like brain owner will need it.
They'd have to be a microcephalic to be able to get their brain into a jar.
@@ScooterZn Nah, you just need a bigger jar
Why? What's wrong with pathologists?
I could understand if it was in a Mountain Dew bottle. But Mayonnaise, that’s just sick!
I am KDS4444. I created the diagram of the mixing vessel's vortex used in this video, and I created and wrote most of the extant Wikipedia article on this incident. The whole thing still brings me to tears.
Well done, Kyle.
The thing is, there are currently nearly 5,000 comments on this video... Diem perdidi.
bump! hope he can see this!
Yours is now the 5th one on my feed from iOS mobile sorted by top comments
You don’t have to lie just to look cool on the internet. You are NOT KDS4444 and you didn’t create the mixing vessel vortex diagram. Liar
hey man dont know if your still active on this channel but id like to ask if you have any info on cecil's wife being at his bedside as kyle says in the video since i can only find info on her only being notified after he had died and she didnt even know he had been hit with ratiation while he was still alive. i also find it strange that in a place so top secret they would even allow a bedside visit to take place.
Man if someone desiccated my loved one then said “God gave me permission” they would’ve been personally meetin him in the next few minutes.
My first thought after hearing that was “I wish that man was still alive so I could break his jaw”
What would be learned from the testing of organs from an exposure like that would be valuable. He was basically jelly. He should have asked and explained why. It was something that needed to be examined. Mayonnaise jars though, its a freaking lab and thats all he could find.
Desicated? Did you mean dissected? Autofill, I presume.
@@1014p I think people are getting freaked out on little stuff like the Hellman's jars (great name, hunh?) and forgetting the big picture. An industrial accident happened causing life-ending injuries to a worker. Such accidents have to be evaluated and studied so as to prevent more of the same from happening to anyone else.
Rather than focus on the aspect of the doctor removing tissue, violating the poor victim's body, one might consider him like an organ donor. Maybe one day his tragic loss and study of the radiation damage could save countless other lives. Just as one motorcyclist (organ donor) can possibly save 2-3 liver transplant recipients, 2 kidney donors, corneal and eye transplants, skin, bone and connective tissues can help reconstruct a number of others, too. Out of tragedy, hope and life can flower. If we want to get angry about it, fine, there's lots of reasons to be. But if you ask me, there's a huge amount of good, too. Maybe if the truth came out, and along with the paltry few million the victim's families had to split in the civil settlement they and their lost loved ones received the thanks of a grateful and sympathetic world, we could find something like a silver (though still slightly radioactive) lining to this dark cloud.
@Don Cely have you heard of medical ethics? By your rationale, a great many things could be done to other humans if it serves a "greater good." This is a slippery slope indeed, which is why informed consent is so important.
Pretty much every stage of this situation was devoid of basic ethics.
"Let's just inject some folks with Plutonium"
Somewhere, Mengele's corpse got a thrill.
(Edit: and at the time he got an unexpected tingle, guess I was wishcasting his demise as being more proximate to the atrocities)
Considering the fucker was still alive at the time, I don't think this statement is accurate.
These are the “experts.” The scientists who tell us they have medicine to protect and help us.
@@NASkeywest Yup. Go get ypur vaccine.
@@NASkeywest Your logic:
A small number of teachers have abused children. Don't ever trust teachers.
@@kaminachos5129 Your logic:
Blindly trust authority.
These are just the stories that we KNOW about. I shudder to think about what we don't know.
The scariest thing is not what you know, or what you don't know. There are things that you know, and things you _know_ that you _don't_ know... But we vastly underestimate the size of our ignorance...
The scariest thing is the thing _you don't know_ that you don't know...
The monsters you don't know you have to fear. The stories you don't know you haven't listened. The horrors you haven't even paused to imagine...
The darkness is full of answers.
Answers without questions.
@@DonVigaDeFierro poetic, seriously
Movie, "Gosnell - Americans worst serial killer" --------- for damned sure not many yanks know about this true story.
The way you say that reminds me of the DUGA-2
My ex’s dad worked at los alamos. I wish I had cool stories but I don’t.
I grew up in Albuquerque. My dad worked at Los Alamos, Kirtland AFB, and later at the Hanford Site in WA.
He was a geologist. He drilled out massive cores of the earth’s surface to be tested for radioactive material as well as other purposes.
I’ve seen some of the huge earth cores. They were as long as a semi truck trailer, and piled as high.
My dad said he never drilled a core that wasn’t contaminated. My dad had cancer three times, the third case was very sadly his last.
The federal government sent him tiny little checks to reimburse him for the healthcare costs. To get the checks he had to have both a DOE contracted doctor and a private doctor examine his case and determine that yes, his cancer was a result of his work at those sites.
These people contaminated the entire earth by testing nuclear weapons.
The earth’s leaders have since tested over 2000 nuclear bombs and counting. This gross shortsightedness has changed life and death for all living things forever.
That’s what our taxes pay for. Deception and death.
It infuriates me that so few make these decisions that will alter lives of so many! It happens way too often!
I am a 63 year old xray tech and ALARA rules of radiation protection were YEARS away. I've had cancer twice, ages 40 and 53. They told us we were being "monitored ", like that was our protection. Then they send me a survey to do with bloodwork I have to pay for on my own and send to them
YEA RIGHT F.U.NRC
What power do we regular folk have to stop it?
@@1snivy10the power of revolution and violence en masse, the government fears us, and rightly so. If 500k people marched on DC it things would change. That’s why they try and keep this shit secret as long as they can.
@@1snivy10 none
"God gave me permission" may as well mean "God didn't stop me"
i think he was just refering to his own morality and i still think he did the right thing
@@umocnicdiscographydictumri4578 it is quite a controversial topic. On the long run yes his way might have had positive effects on future scientific studies but on the short run what he did was truly unethical and way beyond the boundaries of ethics we have built around us. History has indeed shown that sometimes the most unethical decision is the best one in the long run however in certain scenarios the consequences in the short run might outweigh the results of the long run...now that is simply an opinion don't go hard on it
@@Noobscodee I agree but would add that if we want that kind of progress than the masses shouldn't be informed or at the most be given very small bits of information enough to satiate their hunger and to keep them under control
@@sajadhoxhaj6603 Yeah, I don't support his decision at all to do what he did, especially without permission - I think he was in the wrong for how it was done.
Although for the actual act, there is an argument to be made that it is worthwhile to turn Kelly's already-terrible accident into something good for all, since he was already a loss.
Kelly, in a way, still had a chance to contribute something very meaningful and lasting to the world and to medicine. In that way, Kelly should be remembered for his sacrifice and *not* Lushbaugh. It is terrible that he or his family were never given the decision though.
So, both things can be true, Lushbaugh did an unspeakably terrible things, and Kelly made a huge contribution (unwillingly) with his last moments because of it.
Maybe it is unethical for others to ever receive or benefit those contributions because of how they were gained, but once everything happened - there was no saving Kelly, and there was no un-desecrating his remains. Lushbaugh was wrong, and we should never do what he did, but we cannot erase it either.
@@Noobscodee
That would be and is a irresponsible notion. They knew back then what they were doing was unethical. To take remains without next of kin's permission or more importantly, to inject a well established poison into a unsuspecting victim is the poster child for what not to do. They already knew what the outcome would be. Death. There is no curative measure. The only treatment is to not get exposed. No learning curve there and BTW, they already knew that before this incident. So was anything earthshattering learned? No. Medical ethics is in place to prevent human experimentation as was done in WWII, the Tuskegee syphilis experiment and in this instance.
These mini-docs are both fascinating and also disturbing. Thank you for making them.
GAGAGAGAGAAGAG this is wonderful! PRANK! It is terrible! I looked in the mirror and saw something UNPRETTY: my face. GAGAGAGAG! But I am happy again because I have TWO HOT GIRLFRIENDS and I make cool YT videos with them! Good evening, love and peace, dear cris
@@AxxLAfriku sometimes i wish the world went into a nucelar war 40 years ago.
@@vasudevsivadas4526 we can all relate im sure
@@AxxLAfriku Cursed comment
Did you mean "thanks I hate it"
Is anyone else loving these mini docuseries episodes Kyle is doing??
Cause I know I am.
Yeah that's why the upvote system is a thing.
They are interesting and get to the point. Not like some you would see on TV.
Yep yep
Yeah, they are absolutely fantastic. So well made.
they hit...DIFFERENT.
My grandfather's younger brother worked on the Manhattan Project, assembling the bomb. He said that he thought the soldiers were being experimented on without their knowledge. Now I understand that he wasn't kidding or being paranoid.
Read up on the atomic veterans, and how our gov't denied they all ended up with cancer being in the military and the VA wouldn't take their claims.
Honestly, the moment they knew he was beyond saving, they should have told him and asked for permission to learn all they can while minimizing pain. If I were in Cecil's position, and they were honest, I'd have said, "Do it. Save as many lives as you can."
You have to remember this is 1958. These incidents were rare and we didn't know what we know now. Too many people look at these incidents with retrospect. These doctors were just punting and its happened throughout medical history. Medicine has a dark past and present.
@@ooo_Kim_Chi_ooo this is ethics they knew then, it's not a new concept to reduce or end one's suffering.
@@idiotidiot5821 exactly, you'd be surprised what people will do for the sake of others if you give them honesty and treat them like people. And besides even if this guy just wanted to die instead of being tested on he should've been given that right. Its not his responsibility to suffer for the sake of others. There's no excuse for what happened here.
@@ooo_Kim_Chi_ooo they didn’t really save anyone’s lives though did they? Here we are, 70 years later an all they have is more bombs to kill people.
@@NASkeywest These tests don't relate to nuclear weapons or even nuclear power generation. The things to be learned from this were to do with the effects of radiation on humans. Which were used to increase safety of those working with radioactive materials.
That doesn't justify what they did. But I hope that clarifies things for you.
“God gave me permission” is a remarkably scary quote... holy shit...
the ends justify the means i guess
@@aiden-sy3ex no it doesn't
@@aiden-sy3ex no it fuckin doesn't.
He was dead. His body held the answers we needed. I'd call that a job well done.
Everything else including the "god" response was pretty disgusting.
@@aggressivereindeer3200 the means didn't have to happen as they did. They could have at least asked permission, and probably gotten it. Tell their family that the body will be used for the scientific research.
Edit: permission isn't required, actually, because of how many lives it would save. Instead telling the family should at least be enough, along with compensation perhaps.
If doing bad causes good, but there is a morally superior option that is less bad, anyone who does the latter should be hated.
If "god gave me permission" is a good enough excuse for Clarence to steal organs, then it's damn well good enough for me, when it comes to having just one more slice of pizza.
*But it never is just one slice.*
@@MultiNaruto900 God is forgiving, they'll let you have another. and another. and another. and anot
@@RusselKabirTR this is why nobody invites you to parties
@@RusselKabirTR bruh
@@RusselKabirTR personally I see what you're trying to say here. you mean to say he doesn't necessarily sees himself as God either but rather, he himself think it was the right thing to do and given the chance would probably do it again.
still, that just makes him as bad or worse in my book
thank you for introducing us to the concept of "exploding radioactive diarrhea"
I guess you could say It's a dirty bomb
Imagine wiping afterwards.
@@jordan_roadhouse4798 To see if you missed a spot, just turn the lights out.
Viewers: How much are you gonna scare us about radioactivity?
Kyle: Yes!
Tbh i'm more scare of Humans than Radioactivity
@@MartoRoss
this really reminds me of Hunter ✖️ Hunter
*Plainly Difficult has joined the chat*
well a death by acute radiation syndrome does sound like one of the worst ways to die so yes, i am scared af lol
well, as the great evil scientist I am, I use a lot of radioactive substances in my inators
my obliteratinator uses almost 500 IBS of polonium
When you imagine the exact situation where you see a “heavenly” blue light with rumble sounds it feels completely out of the world and terrifying.
If one was educated enough to know what the "blue light" is and means, then yes, a completely horrible situation to think about.
But then, to the uneducated, it can be a wonderful curiosity. Look up the Goiania incident... Some thieves stole an unguarded Radiotherapy machine, disassembled it, got the radioactive Cesium 137 core out of it, and witnessed the same "blue glow"(Cherenkov radiation) and thought it was perhaps a valuable "gemstone" or something "supernatural". Ignorant to it's real effects, the participants were excited and played with the poison until they all received a fatal dose, got sick, and eventually died as a result. I guess ignorance CAN be bliss, until you have to pay the price, that is.
No one touch the like button. It is perfect
@@pikachusucks5151 Too late for that, but if we can get 50 more it'll be perfect again
@@multigrandmarquis We have to try
My dad was working at Los Alamos when Cecil Kelly died. My dad didn’t know him, but it certainly came as a shock to hear of the accident. I remember him telling me about it some 40 years ago, and Kelly’s words: “I’m burning up! I’m burning up!”
That always creeped me out.
What's going on NOW with this "Corona Virus" will top ALL the things that Humans ever did, including the Nazis and any testing on humans.
For an example : In the 90's German prisoners did get tons of fresh food, only to find out what food contains the EHEC Virus.
How i could tell that ?
I WAS in prison that time for 1 year (not guilty).
I never trust ANY form of "Government" in ANY part of the world !
ACAB !
Yeah yeah, sure dude
@@natan5425
Aw gee, I was so hoping Natan Gomes would come on here and validate me. 😂
But to give some background to those who may be interested. I was born in 61. My dad served in the Navy in the South China Sea in WWII, he used the GI Bill to get a Masters in Physical Chemistry from Baylor, then went to work at Los Alamos after graduating. He later got a job as a researcher for ORNL in Oak Ridge, and I was born in Knoxville. I moved to Maryland when I was ten because my dad got a job at the AEC in Bethesda in 1972, now known as the NRC. He was the project manager for various nuclear power plants around the country; Quad Cities, Hanford, and San Onofre, just to name a few.
Please believe me, Natan. I need your validation… Phag! 🤣. 🍆
@@natan5425because we all know that it's physically impossible to be related to someone who knew someone noteworthy.
@@natan5425you realize how many people are employed at los alamos?
It’s horrifying to think about how many cruel and unethical experiments have taken place that we don’t and never will know about. Had it not been for one journalist coming across those documents this whole thing would have never been exposed. I’m 100% sure there are thousands of past and current horrible human experiments going on all over the world, the vast majority of we will never hear about nor will the victims get justice.
Me: "I like the color blue."
Discount Thor: "I can change that."
Radiation burns like that are like a bad sunburn but through your entire body Which has very sensitive tissues such as bone marrow
Most of your cells are “dead” and can’t repair themselves.
The neutrophils get replaced every six hours so they go fast and so do red blood cells which rely on the bone marrow to replace them every 120 days.
Your stomach and gastric cells are very often replaced to stop them from being damaged by enzymes and acid in the stomach and intestines. These will die very quickly from the radiation.
Lungs are also quite sensitive due to their structure.
So basically if you see a blue flash in a nuclear zone
Your organs will melt quickly.
Muscles and skin can work fine after the initial burns but will fail eventually
Imagine if someone made a gamma ray weapon that would shoot a beam of radiation in one direction
@@captainahab5522 "imagine if someone made a gamma ray weapon that would shoot a beam in one direction".
Man, that would be the worst. Much, much worse than atomic bombs.
If a country manages to succeeds in making such a device, they could mount it on a satellite 🛰 and assassinate political rivals(and other people) from space.
There would be no defence from such a weapon,no warning, nothing,not until its too late.
@@captainahab5522 And this is relevant to my comment... how? Like, yeah it's factually correct, but... there are a million othe comments you could've posted this to and it would've been better fitting. this is just an exposition dump, dumped on my joke comment.
@@AJ-jq3hm yeah
I was imagining a rocket launcher like thing, but a satellite mounted one would be absolutely terrifying
Just imagine a government building where the people are talking about something political and one starts sweating and then more of them
One rushes out of the room and throws up and another breaks down with a burning fever
They all die within a week.
A device like that could be fuels by a dissolved plutonium salt and cooled with water
There was a plan to make a laser like that using a nuclear bomb but that is impractical.
A dense non metallic material could focus the beam
@@AJ-jq3hm Just like a dude said
"We're gonna reach a point where the conventional weapons are as deadly and destructive as the nuclear ones"
Kyle, ever heard about the Cesium-137 incident in Brazil? It's a pretty dark story about the danger of radiation and the lack of public knowledge of this danger
Ah yes, the Goiania Disaster. Do not look at, play with, or ingest the pretty blue glowing dust.
This story looks crazy upon reading its wikipedia page, id definitely watch a video on this aha
That would be a good one! Was a very tragic story.
@@NJbldragon ah yes my towns most famous achievement. My grandma lived in the same part as the accident when it happened.
@@robstar020 Plainly Difficult had a video on it
I LOVE these dead serious video essays man. These are worthy of being included in school curriculums across the world.
Yea but that would run counter to almost any government run education.
If you notice there are approved topics in history which push a message. Example are the Nazi's are evil look at all the horror they commited but ignore the outlier of John Rabe. But at the same time Japans war crimes are largely ignored, due to them now being allied with the Western powers. Or the fact that Africa's slave trade was built upon the tribal warfare that happened in that area and rarely was "whites" going out and capturing villages (did happen but not anyway near as much as the tribes trading them). Or the crusades vs the jihad.
Most topics need to be discussed to offer true in site into human nature as there are many people who will act in self sacrifice and many others who are classed as evil. National borders only really effect what ethics are accepted as the norm not if evil or good occurs inside them.
"dead" serious. Nice.
I totally agree, these are parts of history of our world that people should know
I've learned more from Kyle hill than my science classes over the years.
When you realise he is the curriculum...
What an infuriating story. There was much to learn from Kelly’s death, but to do so without permission from the next of kin is a grave breach of scientific ethics.
I like these kinds of lower toned informational videos Kyle. The science videos with silliness about robots and stuff is great but I do enjoy seeing this other side of your presentation ability.
Me too.
KYLE IS THE NARRATOR??? dang he sounds so different here
Yeah I prefer the less zany stuff
This is why we need all history, including things that the US wants to forget.
Certain parties in the US.. not all of us.
Every country has dark things it has done, past and present, the US isn’t unique in that regard.
@@fudgeknuckle952 I think he's talking less about it being censored, and more advocating that it be taught In schools, or at least made more widely known.
_Especially_ the things they want us to forget.
@Rico Santiago let me guess, white middle class and a (toxic) 'patriot'
"An experiment of opportunity" is the most government sh*t I've ever heard.
I'm definitely conflicted about the bodies being studied, obviously without permission is hella wrong, but at the same time the information learned from their bodies can go to help better treat those exposed. And of course given the choice no one wants their family member be dissected especially so in the 1950s.
And given the fact these circumstances don't arise often the possibility with permission to analyze a body would be extremely low. These studies are what led to our current understanding of radiation exposure today, which may have even led to saving many, many lives.
Again I don't forgive nor think these people were right, just pointing out the moral dilemma. Is the cost of a families loved one being dissected without consent not worth the many lives saved by the information gathered?
@@Tbal_96 But the thing is they didn't know it would've have lead to life-saving information, because it was unknown. They didn't know what they didn't know. They just took a shot in the dark, and that shot killed a man and separated him from his own rights and family. He didn't even get a say in it.
@@chaosincarnate7304 No that shit didn't killed anyone, he already was 100% dead after the accident. And I can completely understand the reason to analyze the body, because this was a situation that is very a rare and there is no other ethical way to get data like this. I found the information about other people getting plutonium injected without them knowing much worse and awful, even if they didn't die, because they didn't knew about it and where perfectly fine before.
@@GoblinUrNuts They never knew they would get anything that would progress us forward from snatching a corpse and experimenting on it. Yet you pretend like the family wanting their loved ones corpse so they can mourn is evil because it stopped a HUUGE progression of humanity and they knew it (they didn't) . Why didn't they ask the family for the body? If they didn't, just look for someone else. They just took the easy and unethical way out which isn't an excuse for any scientist when a more, direct way even if it is hard can get you the same if not more information. They literally put his brains into mayo, that's cutting corners ain't it? But hey, shady governments and entities be shady...
@@Tbal_96 No, there is no “moral dilemma”. You notice not one of these evil scum injected themselves with this shit. Every single one of them should have been thrown into a reactor for a random length of time, then pulled out and studied if the information was so fucking precious. If the knowledge is only worth someone ELSE’S life, then it is not worth obtaining.
I think what surprises me the most about this is how (from the timeline in the video) Cecil lived for another 10 hours after his wife described his insides as "mush". Yeah those 10 hours were no doubt torture-- but you'd kinda expect for his body to completely shut down WAY sooner considering just how high of a dose he'd taken straight to the head/chest
Boris Korchilov experienced significantly more and lived for 6 whole days
That moment when you realize many science fiction tropes have actual horrifying realities
Psychopaths gets degrees too
Blue Sky Beams 😨😨
There is no nightmare that humans can imagine that we can’t create.
When he said "God gave me permission," the unspoken part was that he was the god in question.
Oh yeah. The hubris.
That is basicaly true for everything evil done in the name of god.
@@MrPhelan1979 for everything good as well
Meanwhile God is thinking "wtf wrong with this guy"
I think what he meant was that the end the means. He was morally justifying his acts.
"God gave me permission."
Most. Discrediting line. Ever. Also most rage-inducing. He's one of those guys who would have had a line of people waiting to punch him in the face. I can understand wanting to take advantage of a unique situation for research, but any sympathy I may feel for such perspectives goes straight out the window when you start bringing up deities. Truly despicable.
As if it’d be any different if he was given permission from his government or was an atheist who did it strictly on his own accord without any ideology infecting his mind?
@@thatperformer3879 Apart from him trying to excuse his unethical experiments by putting the blame on his 'god', attempting to absolve himself of any responsibility. He was no better than those concentration camp guards who tried to use "I was only obeying orders" as an excuse.
@@thatperformer3879 yeah. It’s still kinda similar tho. The government shouldn’t have a right to anyone’s body, and could even use the same excuse so they both are sickos. If it was an atheist, their excuse wouldn’t be “god told me it’s all good”. They’d have some other gross reason, so I can’t say whether that reason would be as fundamentally infuriating. There’s just a LOT of problems wrong with blaming the whole thing on god.
That's the American mentality for you - write "god wills it" on a gun and pretend you're the good guys.
At least this guy was performing shady experiments that might actually improve medicine at some point, but I still would question just how godly his actions were.
@@thatperformer3879 the difference is that its even more cowardly and slimy than pushing blame onto a superior.
"God gave me permission" not only is EXTREMELY narcissistic, but it ends the discussion. The trail starts and ends with Clarence, noone gave him permission to do what he did, he just decided that he had the right to take away their rights to their own bodies.
It speaks more to his heartlessness and his ego than it would if he just blamed a government or someone else.
This dude thinks his actions were so righteous and noble that a god would stand by him. It doesn't change WHAT he did, but it tells us how deluded and self-absorbed he was, that defiling these corpses was something with zero shame, in his eyes, because he got his research.
It's a very dangerous attitude to have and not one that should ever be present or encouraged in ethical research. Theres a reason we have these systems in place.
I read "The Plutonium Files" and what was done to the victims is appalling and disgusting. Especially appalling was what happened to a young boy from Australia. In all justice those at the upper levels of the experiments should have been prosecuted.
"God gave me permission." - Christ. What a monster.
Edit: Yes. I'm fully aware that the scientific information was absolutely necessary to gather. That still doesn't make it okay. Injecting, testing, and removing the body parts/organs of a largely unsuspecting public (or their fellow employees) is disgusting. As for the doctor who stated the earlier quote.. he couldn't even regret that it was necessary. That's what I found appalling.
Yeah, Jesus might be a bit of a monster if that’s true.
@@RobertMcBride-is-cool I was literally going to say that god themself is a monster in many ways; and if that's true then perhaps being human is to rise above nature or we'll always be the monsters among ourselves.
Fucking goosebumps at that line.
The blasphemous presumption in that statement of his should be enough for God to condemn the bastard to Hell for eternity.
@@RobertMcBride-is-cool ok so I'm not the only one that read this that way.
"Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
I've used that quote many times, it's THAT good.
I’ve seen this quote used a lot as a sort of joke, but in this case it’s actually very applicable.
"Our scientists?"
They're hardly alone, there's scumbags like that in every country in the world. Medicine and science both seem to attract psychopaths! I believe in them, I just think they need some serious oversight.
@@loganmpe7559 The original quote says your scientists, but yes, Our scientists fits better, as even the most brilliant minds can do inhumane things and try to justify it
Giving unknown shots of Plutonium to unsuspecting people to test their dead bodies later. Sounds kind of like back in my days the CIA giving GIs and other people doses of LSD without them having any knowledge of, or permission, to test their reactions. Ant the government wonders why so many people today reuse to get the Covid vaccine. What's really in it? Trust the government...hahaha, yeah right.
I wonder what terrifying cases like this and worse are unknown and will remain unknown forever.
Really starts to make you think the only problem with nuclear energy is the HUMAN BEINGS involved with it!
You wanna remain unknown because investigative journalists either dont exist or are severely nerfed and suing the government is pretty much impossible, go to communist countries
Like he said investigative journalism is the a thing of the past. All the scientists researchers and journalists are owned by the far left and theylle do and say what they’re told.
Otherwise we may of heard exactly why our economy was ruined by a lab made China virus and why China is back up and running and we’re still doing the big circle jerk that is 2021 America
@@chestrockwell1794 exactly
@@chestrockwell1794 damn someone chugged the kool aid
As someone with diagnosed ADHD, I'm always 100% paying attention and able to follow the your whole videos. I appreciate the way you explain the science with diagrams and precise images. Also the subtle music in the background really helps but never distracts. Wish i had you as a teacher for science growing up. I save all your videos and one day when i hope to teach others with ADHD/ADD i can use them. Much love and respect! Keep it up!
As someone with ADD I can 100% agree
Another person with ADHD chiming in, and I third this opinion
I'm getting diagnosed with ASD and maybe have ADD/ADHD too, and I gotta say, I agree. I learned more in these videos than I did in school.
Yessir
Me to im retired now 69 im thinking back lateley about life how i differ from others life was hard sometimes . but it gave me insight about others and i found most people are worse than i am ha ha.
This is an example of an answer to the question: "What kind of experiments would happen if ethics wasn't a factor?"
Look at the Nazi experiments and it answers that perfectly
@@birdbrain6503 pretty sure Paperclip sent people to Los Alamos, so it's really just an extension.
@@GuntherRommel paperclip sent plenty of people to los alamos. Paperclip was seriously messed up
@@alexanderherzog3064: The U.S.A.: Why make people suffer the consequences of their misdeeds when there's -CommiesTerroristsDemocrats- (insert name of next enemy here) to fight?!
@@sdfkjgh exactly! It's ok to be a terrible person and commit war crimes as long as it helps us
Thanks for researching and producing this. I believe my family was part of the settlement you mention (grandfather worked in lab N5 from the 50s through the early 70s, DOE settlement for tissue samples without consent). This is more informative about what happened than anything I’ve seen previously, means a lot to me.
(edit) I confirmed with my mother that her father was indeed part of the tissue analysis program in 1971, and we were part of the settlement. She just watched this and really appreciated the video, as it’s more context and information on this than she’s seen out there before. She’s on a hunt for the book you mentioned now (Los Alamos library probably has it if anywhere does). Thank you again
👍
Wow. How insane to be the descendant of someone who was such a major part of history- a dark part of history, but very important history nonetheless. I hope you teach your children when they’re old enough about what happened to their great grandfather and why consent is so important.
😲😔🙏❤️
his voice is so serious that my cat came and watched with me for 2 minutes without moving its eyes from the screen
Clearly your cat loves knowledge.
Keep an eye on that cat of yours. He/she clearly knows more than he/she lets on.
@@durandol Rick and Morty got it wrong, its not the squirrels but the Cats you have to watch out for.
Perhaps your cat was interested in the legal proceedings. Is your cat a lawyer?
Sounds entirely different. Guess he puts on more of a show for other channels.
The most fascinating thing about Cecils scenario is that if he wasn't standing on the footstool and staring into the vessel, he may not have recieved the fatal dose of radiation.
If he was anywhere near that vessel, the burst of radiation would have killed him. If the tank was critical for a long enough period, the blast of radiation could have been fatal to everyone else in the building with him.
@@taraswertelecki3786that’s not actually how it works. Sometimes (and in this case) radiation moves in straight line. You are correct that most of the time it’s an explosion that goes everywhere. But there’s rare cases where radiation only hits a certain spot. Can’t remember his name but there’s a case where a huge amount of radiation only passed though his face. He actually lived a long life, but has health problems. And half his face never aged. Anatoli Bugorski. I went ahead and looked up his name. Worth the study it’s an interesting case.
Add that with the screwdriver
@taraswertelecki3786 to my understanding, radiation is, well, radiating. Therefore, the closer you are to a criticality, especially without any barriers to absorb it, the danger increases exponentially.
I think this is correct. It was shown in the Hisashi Ouchi incident where the boss sitting at the desk did receive a lower dose that was not lethal to him. Distance from the source goes a long way.
I am fucking LOVING this new format. It’s serious, scientific, historical, and terrifying in the most captivating way. Well done, and keep em coming!
"God gave me permission"
God: "No the fuck i didn't"
And then he sent him straight to hell.
@@JukesMcGee Amen
I think he was saying it was a clear moral/ethical choice. Assuming there was a reason he couldn't tell the families what the samples were for (most everything at Los Alamos was highly classified), I don't disagree.
BTW: Seems like he did get permission to take samples in other cases, but didn't say what they were for.
PS: As for the injection experiment... That was just very wrong, but was done by different people that this guy taking samples from corpses. Frankly odd to me how those very different experiments and ethical situations are connected (almost conflated) in the telling of the story. Guess "body snatchers" is just a good headline/clickbait.
I wonder if as he burns in the deepest pit of Hell, If he still thinks God told him!!
He never said the name of his god...👿
Sweet mercy, this is haunting.
In my head, I imagine this as the worst sunburn you could get, but all the way through you. Thinking about the way skin peels, blisters, and sloughs off from those burns (and that's with the layer of our bodies *meant* to be exposed to the outside) and projecting that all the way inside your chest...
This sounds like an absolutely horrible way to die, especially since this didn't kill him instantly. Imagine experiencing this, FEELING this happen to you...
There are no words to express this properly...
Hisashi Ouchi was kept alive for almost 3 months after a similar experience because his family insisted to the doctors they save him, learning about that accident made me question what is empathy.
@@dariojurisic I went through that too and was never able to enjoy the beach anymore after that.
Kelley was hit not just with gamma radiation, but also neutrons. It was the neutron exposure that made his body radioactive.
It makes me wonder if something similar happened to the man in the Japanese super critical radiation accident. His body had so much radition in it even afterwards that there's no way it could have just been a lot of gamma radiation.
Man! Cecil Kelly took one HELL of a wallop of Gamma rays and neutrons directly to his head and center body mass. I couldn't even IMAGINE how that felt physically AND mentally. And then mentally again after he figured out what had actually happened, and knew of his fate to come. An ordeal like that would be an extremely horrible thing for any human to have to experience.
R.I.P. Cecil. 😞
4,000 rads is seven or eight times the lethal dose.
@@taraswertelecki3786 No. 4000 Rads is approximately 4 times the lethal dose.
1000 or more Rads is the dose rate that is considered to be the "Lethal dose rate" for a human being, although people HAVE survived more.
500 Rads is what's considered to be the dose rate for the onset of symptoms of "Acute Radiation Sickness".
@@davelowets Sorry, not true. Any health physicist will tell you that 1,000 rads is way beyond the lethal dose, and you'll be dead in less than ten days, two weeks at the most.
@@taraswertelecki3786 Umm, OK... Think what you want to think. I dont care..
Was having a stroke and thought you were talking about The Alamo and I was like “wtf are scientists gonna do with 180 year old bodies”
You just made this a whole lot better!
remembering them
This is the most horrifying video I have ever watched. I've experienced such a bone-deep horror as I did when you described Cecil's symptoms, the bone marrow biopsy, and the way his body was treated. This story is so awful, and the way you told it perfectly highlighted every detail in a way that I will 100% never forget anything about it.
I appreciate that you treat these stories with empathy and respect.
As opposed to what?
@@KleptomaniacJames Not everyone does.
Le-DemonCore lul
"God gave me permission." That's exactly the kinda thing a super villain says in the first act, right before something terrible happens.
Since this series started every time i hear the words "a blue flash" i get chills down my spine and an unnerving sense of dread and fatality. Very well conveyed how terrifying such a death sentence is.
Word to the wise: if you see the blue flash, immediately take out a pistol and off yourself, quick and painless.
I liked the content, too much black, well done, but I’m sorry you look like a Labrador, get a haircut or something, that’s embarrassing?
The only reason that such atrocities like these keep happening again and again throughout our history is because people cannot accept that there are fellow humans out there who are actually this evil. This is the ultimate form of evil and when it’s already happened once they then get the notion that we’ve learned from it and that it’s impossible for it to ever occur again: this is the greatest of our flaws.
“You can be dead and not even know it yet”
*clears throat*
If you've ever had the thought "where do I take this channel from here..."
This is it, chief.
For real.
This is top mf content.
“The Body Snatchers of Los Alamos”
Sounds like a Buzzfeed Unsolved episode.
When I first saw it I thought it was one djgjdng
Also, memento mori :>
@@TheDarkestShadeOfLight :)
Buzzfeed Unsolved? Do you mean the show actually titled "those two guys that are the only good things to ever exist on Buzzfeed"?
Buzzfeed is TRASH
@@mrFoxYou1 i agree, but buzzfeed UNSOLVED is fantastic
This discussion about how these people didn't know that they were being experimented on reminds of a nonfiction book called The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, which is about a woman whose cancer cells were taken by her doctor without her knowledge. The cells became super important in cellular biology and cancer research.
I'm definitely adding The Plutonium Files to my to read list now.
With all due respect, Henrietta was NOT experimented on. The cells were just taken from her, as in, her cancer has been removed.
"When the patient woke up, his skeleton was missing, and the doctor was never heard from again! Anyway, that's how I lost my medical license, heh." -TF2 Medic 2011
Oh thank God it's just a TF2 quote i thought this was an actual quote from the video for a second
I was thinking the same thing, considering this guy literally had brains in jars
This is WAY scarier than most of the fallout vaults experiments. And the worst thing is that this was real...
Reality is just flat out more terrifying than anything fiction can come up with.
yeh. just imagine what kind of reaction US would have given if another country had done intentional human experiments like this. you either die a hero or live long enough to become a villan
@@atafakheri8659 The US helped cover up and pardoned human "experimentation" and extreme torture, including vivisections without anesthesia, on prisoners and mentally handicapped people by the Japanese government during WWII.
@@spagootest2185 operation paperclip was a disgrace too
@@spagootest2185 We did even more ourselves (the US) on our own citizens, and many more, just because of the color of their skin. We’re hardly saints
Remember when he used to answer fun questions with marker pens?
This new model is way better.
Your videos are amazing! Could you perhaps do a short documentary on Alexander Litvinenko’s assassination with Polonium 210? That story has stuck with me since childhood and I think your amazing storytelling would really make it come to life.
Omg yes to that!
ok, two things i have learned. all containers involved in nuclear chemical processing should be proofed for the worst case contents. secondly someone should always be on hand with a 22 pistol if someone gets over a certain dosage, so you dont have to experience the following process.
I have a copy of "The Plutonium Files" that came in a bunch of boxes of books from my dad. I've not read even half of the books he gave me, but I recognize the cover. My dad was a Marine with high level security clearance (still won't tell us why) and was fascinated by stories like this.
Unfortunately, Military operatives can't give out the reasons why they had clearance willy-nilly, I guess. :( There are a lot of mysteries with my dad and he won't tell me why he was so high-security either.
My paternal grandfather was a computer programmer for the USAF in the 60’s and 70’s. He never showed my Dad anything, but between the silence about his job and a variety of insights about the expense and wild impracticality of using satellites for domestic spying, we are pretty sure what he did.
@@VibbyABibby Yes we can lmao I had a TS clearance because I was in signals intelligence.
@@VibbyABibby you can leave behind info for your family and friends once you die tho. and you should.
Read the book! It is both fascinating and terrifying, particularly in the revelations of the incredible arrogance of the doctors and military personnel who conducted these experiments. I used to discuss portions of it with my high school students when we were studying nuclear chemistry and the ethics of its use.
The first story of Cecil Kelly shook me so much I forgot this was about injection experiments until they were brought up again. These people were super villains
No. They weren't lol. And their work has probably save thousands more lives. Unethical? Debatable in Cecil's case. Not so for the others, what they did was wrong. But imo the results where worth it.
@@johnathanera5863 ah yes reviving a man and attempting to save him as he literally disintegrates on a molecular level, ethical.
Anti-semite.
@@johnathanera5863 let's get you signed up for some experiments for future generations then
@@yoohoo9744 sure. If I'm dying anyway I dont have a problem with that. I'm already an organ doner.
I think the most disturbing part of this whole story is the mere fact that if permission had actually been received from the families of the deceased, then this would have been a very different tale, tone-wise.
Implying that permission would have been received.
The one lesson I've learn through these mini-docs: A scientist's reaper glows blue.
Hehehehhhehehhhe
i dont get it
@@Palladiumavoid I dont get it
@@ddogg2685 when plutonium goes critical it glows bright blue
@@goldbergshekelwitz1596 I get the joke now thanks. I appreciate your help
Me: I’m going to watch something fun today on TH-cam
Kyle: *N O*
literally the fifth or sixth video on radiation I've watched and I don't know how well I'll sleep tonight.
"Discount Thor" sounds a little mean for Kyle. I submit we start referring to him as "Intelli-Thor". I think that has a groovy ring to it.
I just stumbled upon this channel and find it excellent. It seems to be thoroughly researched and is professionally presented. You have a great speaking voice, Kyle.
A very similar event happened in RI. Dude perished by accidentally inducing criticality at a nuclear fuel recycling plant and his widow was given ashes that she swears up and down did not belong to him because they never registered as even slightly radioactive.
They don’t give you bones when they give you the ashes. With those in the trash, whatever they took the scoop out of was going to be pretty close to normal as far as radiation is concerned.
This makes my blood run cold. As an Army brat, I received many injections when my family was deployed overseas in the seventies and eighties. I never questioned those shots, until today.
Radiation burns are like having sunburns but inside your organs and bone marrow which is nasty.
Those shots are probably just vaccines
But I don’t really trust the us to not use it’s citizens as test subjects like it has many times
nothing to worry about, during those timer there was just MK ultra
Have you ever heard of ‘Gulf War Syndrome’
@@MSLallemand Yes.
Kyle, you are extremely good at narrating. Speed/rhythm, emphasis, clarity, all of it. Well done.
The first time I heard about this accident was in the Atomic Accidents book. Its a scary read and increcibly interesting read, and this one scenario is horrible. The fact that he became a mush is incredible. The power of nature's byproducts, especially when it goes wrong, is quite mind boggling.
This is spooky af!!
If Crypt TV is calling it creepy, you've done something right
I need I scientifically accurate, Lovecraft style horror series.
Watch Cory comment on this thread lol
Sounds like something you could base a new series off of.
Damn even crypt tv thinks it's creepy
"Criticality is at the core..." that was smart
Thank you for this. My father passed away recently and we loved your show on BS so much. I've gotten comfort watching you mini-docs to help distract me. Good work and keep it up Kyle. We even watched the Demon Core episode together.
Sorry for your loss.
Hey I kinda know how you feel, me and my dad would talk about nuclear bombs and the science behind them and stuff, and he left us about a year ago. I hope all is well man
@@imhaddanitattaxx4172 Thank you man. We loved talking WWII and the Nuclear Age. Super interesting shit.
I'm sorry for your loss
The amount of suffering humans have put other humans, animals and the earth through is beyond terrifying
I am a massive fan of this format! Loved the Castle Bravo video.
I looked on google earth and I can see the crater
Also the radiated islands beeches have been blurred to a pink colour.
I cant imagine the pain that man went through during this whole ordeal... "I'm burning!" Has to be one of the worst ways to go out... I just, just wow. 😔😭
😭
😭
Meh lot of worse ways to go out but yeah that would suck
@@frozi7711 I dunno, getting your insides turned to mush while you're still alive would be absolutely awful. At least a lot of other forms of painful death are quicker.
death by radiation poisoning is practically the definition of "dead man walking". the moment you receive that lethal dose, it's over, there's no saving you. that's what makes it so terrifying. honestly, if i were ever hit with a lethal dose, id request to be euthanized. id already be dead, but at least i wouldnt suffer that way.
I grew up in Los Alamos in the 90's and had never heard of this. The Demon Core was almost common knowledge but this really was covered up. If only they had just asked Cecil Kelley or his family to study the effects of this accident. I don't expect Cecil to say "No cremate me so I can spread my radioactive bone mush in the air rather than further our knowledge to protect ourselves from this.".
alot of people wouldve said yes to that because of what they saw. they saw their family suffer at the hands of a radioactive incident, and if letting scientists study the body will help people avoid the same fate, it would be an offer thats hard to turn down
yikes… I can imagine the one doctor thinking “I’m pretty sure explosive radioactive diarrhea wasn’t in my job description“
I’m fucking loving these “evil science” mini-docs!
This is amazing work Kyle, absolutely incredible, getting goosebumps whole way across these Half-Life documentaries, such a welcome change..!
What a heartbreaking story! God bless Cecil Kelley's soul. May he rest in peace. May perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of the faithful departed through the Mercy of God rest in peace, Amen. I fear there's no rest in peace for mr. clarence lushbaugh. I'm an RN. I care for the dying in their homes. I've watched a lot of people die. There's definitely a heaven and a hell. God have Mercy on that doctor and those indifferent people who subjected so many people to suffering for the sake of 'science.' Even the sheep didn't deserve it.
I’m glad you are making content for multiple audiences. This series is definitely more up my alley.
Stop scaring me and my children.
....My children aren't scared. Alright, stop scaring me.
This is truly a horrific story and my heart goes out to the family of this unfortunate man, (not to mention him for all he had to suffer.)
However, if that was me, and if studying my remains might lead to lives being saved, my last words might be: "Go to Costco, you can get bigger jars there."
I'm with you on that. If life-saving information can be gained from my tragic demise, do what you have to. But it's definitely important to let people know what's going on.
The lack of consent in the injection experiment made me think of that "feeding kids radioactive oatmeal" thing Kellogg's did. The kids had all been either orphaned or abandoned by their parents, and as far as I could see, nothing was done in regards to actually getting permission, or informing anybody about what was going on. Might make an interesting addition to the half-life histories.
Oh man. Guys I just wanna say that I love you all. This community feels like home and it feels awesome to be a part of this channel, even though I'm just a mere subscriber.
The content on the channel, the comments, the creativity and positivity here is something I don't want to miss, ever.
Just wanted to say that I'm grateful for that.
I just woke up at 10 am, went into the kitchen and realized that my stove was on since 12 yesterday and it was on full blast for 22 hours straight without burning the house down. Thank the basilisk it is a quality made stove top and kitchen, because there weren't even smoke detectors installed in the house. The old ones were thrown out and the new ones aren't here yet.
With a little less luck I wouldn't be writing this.
Now I don't need a new house or be reborn again, I just need to replace my warped stove. 😅
I left a burner on once... fortunately I discovered it soon after and turned it off, when I went back to the kitchen for something else. But I'm a little worried - what if it happens another time, and I go to bed, or fall asleep in front of the tv, before I discover it?
I hope I'm not getting Alzheimers....
I just woke up at 3:50am to get some water and I seen this video, thinking it would be a good video to fall asleep to.......I was DEAD FN WRONG. I feel like I’m having a panic attack.
why did you look at a video with "body snatcher" in the title and think it would be a good video to fall asleep to
Have sweet nightmares I guess.
@@tilburg8683 I was about to make some sort of smartass comment to myself about watching it at an ill-advised time... When I realized that I just fucking watched this video at 02:00am.
Why the hell did I do that?
"The ends justify the means. Always."
- Every egotistical scientist ever
And the SCP foundation.But in their case,they lie in a grey spot of morality.
Politicians
intelligence agencies
Bankers
War criminals
Maybe it should be
- Every Ego ever
@@doge8726 The operative word is "always." Sometimes bad things happen when people are trying to do good things. But that's different from reckless endangerment and rampant secrecy. This research could have been done aboveboard, but it wasn't. All that had to be done was ask:
"Can we take tissue samples from Mr. Kelly's body to study how severe plutonium exposure impacts the body?"
"Would you be willing to receive a non-lethal injection of plutonium so we can figure out where it collects in the body?"
"Will you give us permission to take tissue samples from your family member for a study on radiation exposure?"
All of those questions could have been asked, and the good the experiments led to would not have been compromised (except maybe the injection experiments, because doing something that risky is probably not allowed under the hippocratic oath followed by doctors). What would have changed was the damage to public trust and goodwill that makes any future research harder.
Well, it's true
Why egoistical? he does not pursue any personal gain and for sure knew that he will face consequences when this will become public. It is people who uses that incident to get some free money are egoistical.
Imagine someone scraping radioactive explosive diarrhea off the wall with a tongue depressor
The sacrifices humanity has made to get us to 2021 is NO JOKE. It should never be forgotten. Thanks for this highly informative video.
Is it a sacrifice if it’s done against someone’s will?
@@oppaloopa3698 a human sacrifice, it's doesn't just happen if it's consensual
@@GoblinUrNuts As long as the person working on the body solely does this to save others from a similar gruesome death, i agree, although if they were still alive and experimented on, they would need consent from the person
These "sacrifices" are in fact crimes!!!
@@jimm6095 sacrificial crimes?
Ignorant people: the govt wouldn't do anything to harm us
Govt: *injects people with Plutonium*
At that point its more naivety than ignorance
@@taritangeo4948 indeed
I'm quite sure that wasn't the government that was some scientists
@@nousername8162 the Manhattan project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. That's the govt.
Read about Tuskegee Syphilis Study then.