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WARNING: This article contains images and material that may be upsetting to some readers. While Dr. Victor Frankenstein is the epitome of the movie Mad Scientist, his experiments in reanimating the dead are positively tame compared to some of the real life beaker jockeys who earn the title. For starters, Dr. Frankenstein’s victims were already dead, and were criminals to boot. The most common victims of mad science are innocent animals.

With that said, let’s get mad!

14. Dr Jose Delgado

Dr. Delgado invented a radio controlled mind control chip he called the stimoceiver which could be used to stimulate emotions and control behavior. It produced a variety of effects, including pleasant sensations, elation, deep, thoughtful concentration, odd feelings, super relaxation, colored visions, and other responses. Delgado stated that “brain transmitters can remain in a person’s head for life. In a famous demonstration he stood in the path of a charging bull and caused it to turn away with his stimoceiver.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Delgado: Brains, stuffed monkeys in cages, brains in jars, miscellaneous remote controls and circuitry, brain plasma ball.
13. Dr. Thomas Park.

Dr. Thomas park studies unusual sensory perception amongst mammals, which means his research is dedicated to the creepiest of creatures – Bats and Naked Mole Rats. While we all know bats are the air born form of vampires, many people have not been exposed to the shivering pink mass of flesh and teeth that live like a termite and look like an abortion.
MAD SCIENCE EXPERIMENT: Mole rats cannot be burned with acid.
“”Their insensitivity to acid was very surprising,” Park told LiveScience. “Every animal tested — from fish, frogs, reptiles, birds and all other mammals — every animal is sensitive to acid.” Was Park just throwing acid on a random assortment of creatures to test his theory that they hate it? And what did he do once he discovered mole rats couldn’t be burned? He genetically engineered a cold sore that would make them burnable again.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Thomas Park: Laboratory glassware full of colored fluid labeled “Acid,” dry ice to make them bubble and smoke, habitrails, bats, naked mole rats.
12. Dr. Warren Thomas

Warren Thomas is a scientist who did a lot of acid in 1962. So much so that he thought it would be a good idea to dose an Elephant with LSD. The elephant, named Tusko, died almost immediately. He claimed in his defense he didn’t expect that result, saying he had done plenty of acid himself with no ill effects. What he did expect was the elephant to fly into a psychotic rage, much better right? Warren Thomas remains the only person who can positiely claim to have done enough LSD to kill an elephant.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Warren Thomas: A video projector of “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo. Glass flasks labeled “Acid”
11. Dr. Robert Cornish

Robert Cornish is a scientist who, in Berkley, CA, 1930, managed to resurrect 2 dead dogs by placing them on a seesaw to circulate the blood and injecting them with a mixture of adrenalin and anticoagulants. Not surprising he was able to find a human volunteer for his experiments with a man condemned to be executed, and the state denied him permission for fear he could do it.

DIY laboratory of Dr. Robert Cornish: 2 dead looking stuffed dogs, a seesaw, scary large syringes, laboratory glassware, dog skeletons, dog anatomy charts and models, an electric chair.

10. Beaurieux

During the head chopy frenzy of the French revolution, Beaurieux decided to test the hypothesis that the head survived the blade for about half a minute. He discovered that immediately after decapitation the eyelids and lips of the guillotined man worked in irregularly rhythmic contractions for about five or six seconds. In another experiment he yelled at the severed head, it apparently opened it’s eyes in response to it’s name.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Beaurieux: A guillotine, severed heads.

9. Dr. Vladimir Demikhov

In the words of Roky Erickson, “2 headed dog, 2 headed dog, I been working in the Kremlin for a 2 headed dog.” Demikhov is famous for the first successful head transplant in which he severed the head of a puppy and attached it to the neck of a full grown dog. Both heads survived and were hungry.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Demikhov: stuffed two headed dog, two headed anything, tubes, laboratory glassware, cages, a copy of the song “Two Headed Dog” by Roky Erikson.

8.Dr. Giovanni Aldini

Most famous for inventing the Galvanizing process for metals, the good Dr. also experimented on galvanizing human and animal corpses as a spectacular public show. An eyewitness reported: “Aldini, after having cut off the head of a dog, makes the current of a strong battery go through it: the mere contact triggers really terrible convulsions. The jaws open, the teeth chatter, the eyes roll in their sockets; and if reason did not stop the fired imagination, one would almost believe that the animal is suffering and alive again”. In another show, Aldini pioneered electrocuting the brains of the mentally ill as a means of supposedly helping them.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Aldini: corpses, body parts, plasma balls, electrodes, autopsy instruments, electric chair, straight jackets.

7. Dr. Sergei Brukhonenko

Many of us owe Dr. Brukhonenko a life debt for his invention of open heart surgery procedures, but along the way to saving human life, he discovered the means to keep a dogs head alive without a body.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Brukhonenko: Stuffed dogs head, laboratory glassware, dog skeleton, canine anatomy charts and models, open heart body, heart models.
6.Guy Ben Ary

Guy Ben Ary is a modern day creator of living and dying robots. In one, he cultured a disembodied rat brain and hooked it up to send bluetooth signals to a robot arm half a world away. The arm held colored ink markers and could watch what it was doing and the people around it. Soon, the disembodied rat brain robot learned to draw. Another project is the “Living Screen” “Which “explores what occurs when we cinematically engage with a living screen and employs film theory to understand Bio-Art as a Freak Show’. The Nano-Movies are projected on Living Screens made from skin, blood, sperm or cornea cells that transform, react and change over time and eventually die. Therefore, it contorts the projected Nano-Movie in – unknown ways, and confront the spectators with issues such as life, death, virtuality and reality.”

DIY Laboratory of Guy Ben Ary: robot arms, mice, habitrails, robots, human skin.

5. Dr. Gunther Von Hagens

Another contemporary scientist pushing the boundaries of art, science, and performance. Von Hagens invented a way of turning human corpses to plastic so he could exhibit them in surreal, statuesque dissected poses which he is currently touring the country with. He was also once arrested for doing an unauthorized pubic autopsy exhibition.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Von Hagens: Skinned bodies, laboratory glassware, severed limbs, specimen jars, autopsy table, shovel, autopsy instruments, embalming pumps, corpses.
4.Jack Parsons

Also known as Satans rocket scientist, Parsons is a founding member of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) and follower of Occultist Aleister Crowley. He had little formal education but was instrumental in developing jet and rocket fuel. He was known to engage in bizarre orgies and invoke the great god Pan before launches. He officially died in his garage when a fuel he was mixing exploded, but conspiracy myths abound.

DIY Laboratory of Jack Parsons: Necronomicon, human skulls, occult objects, laboratory glassware, model rockets, globe, moon model, star map, pentagram, black robes, astronaut suit.
3. Johann Dippel

Lord Dippel worked in the most famous laboratory in the world, Castle Frankenstein. Yes, THE Castle Frankenstein. It’s real and so is he. His experiments in anatomy, immortality, alchemy, and alleged grave robbing may have inspired the tale of another famous resident of Castle Frankenstein.
DIY Laboratory of Lord Dippel: Autopsy tables, laboratory glassware, vintage laboratory glassware, corpses, severed body parts, gravestones, specimen jars, plasma balls, autopsy instruments, a shovel.
2. Thomas Edison

What makes a mad scientist? Some are crazy, some are angry, many are both. Thomas Edison falls into the middle category, the angry scientist. After inventing DC electricity, his rival Westinghouse came out with AC electricity (invented by Tesla see #1). Determined to show just how dangerous Westinghouse’s product was, Edison invented the electric chair and went on an electrocution tour – using Westinghouse’s AC current to kill people. That would be like Henry Ford getting into a Chrysler and running people down to show how dangerous Chryslers are. The word electrocution hadn’t been coined yet, so he called death by electricity “Westinghousing.” His finest achievement from this period was when he Westinghoused a rampaging circus elephant. with a custom elephant sized electric chair headpiece.

DIY Laboratory of Thomas Edison: electric chair, light bulbs, knobs, switches, plasma balls, human skeletons, human skulls, charred corpses.

1. Nikola Tesla

No living man has ever been closer to a comic book super scientist then Nikola Tesla. He pioneered the radio and radio control technology which seamed like magic at the time but we now take for granted. He also invented a number of things that will always seem like magic, including the spark shooting Tesla Coil, light bulbs that glow from no known power source, and a pocket sized device that could create devastating earthquakes. His eccentric mannerisms and bizarre vaguely Austrian (actually Serbian and trans-European) accent lead to the iconic german Mad Scientist of film, television and cartoons.

DIY Laboratory of Dr. Tesla: Tesla Coils, plasma balls, anything that sparks or glows, switches, knobs, wires, and tubes.