stackyFACTSIn the 1790s, discovering the secrets of nature meant enthusiastically torturing the local wildlife.
In the 1790s, discovering the secrets of nature meant enthusiastically torturing the local wildlife. Lazzaro Spallanzani wanted to know how bats could hunt in pitch blackness. His highly scientific method? He blinded them, released them, and observed that they flew perfectly fine. Then, he plugged their ears with wax, watched them immediately crash into walls, and deduced they were somehow 'seeing' with sound. It was the brutal, messy dawn of understanding animal echolocation.
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