The "study" was two pediatric doctors and five children as well as public involvement from the families of St Chad's Primary School. It had no outside funding as mentioned in the supplementary study by the 9 year old - "No one paid us. We had the books at home already." My guess is that they were more concerned about spreading the news of the dangers of household chemicals (to the school) rather than an actually seriously wondering about the effects of the "medicine." It seems like they had a bit of fun and in the study mentioned how mimicry is a leading cause of poisoning among children and that 3000 die from poisoning in the EU and 28,000 receive treatment from poisoning in the UK a year. So, while it might not be curing cancer, having the parents and children involved in this study as an activity during lockdown means that they could have prevented a child or two from being poisoned. This was also around the time of the Tide Pod challenge. That means that "science" probably resulted in some public benefit. Which is good, because if they only spent time with their own children and didn't provide a public benefit like curing cancer, then they would be shitty individuals, right? Because if a scientist or doctor isn't working on some huge, big issue like cancer, then they are practically killing everyone who dies from it.
The study in question Also I'll include the conclusion from the kids.
>At the start, Mr Dahl’s description is quite good. Later on though the medicine would be really, really
bad. We do not think that children will make this exact medicine, but they might make other
“medicines” which could be poisonous. Lots of poisons can be found in people’s homes. Making
potions is fun and lots can be learned with this. Just make sure the ingredients are not poisonous
please!
TheFrev t1_j5pfck2 wrote
Reply to comment by _bobby_tables_ in TIL that in 2020, researchers tried to determine the actual effects of ingesting George's Marvelous Medicine (from the Roald Dahl book), consisting of shampoo, anti-freeze, brown paint, floor polish, and 30 other household items. It would cause vomiting, kidney injury, convulsions, and likely death. by derstherower
The "study" was two pediatric doctors and five children as well as public involvement from the families of St Chad's Primary School. It had no outside funding as mentioned in the supplementary study by the 9 year old - "No one paid us. We had the books at home already." My guess is that they were more concerned about spreading the news of the dangers of household chemicals (to the school) rather than an actually seriously wondering about the effects of the "medicine." It seems like they had a bit of fun and in the study mentioned how mimicry is a leading cause of poisoning among children and that 3000 die from poisoning in the EU and 28,000 receive treatment from poisoning in the UK a year. So, while it might not be curing cancer, having the parents and children involved in this study as an activity during lockdown means that they could have prevented a child or two from being poisoned. This was also around the time of the Tide Pod challenge. That means that "science" probably resulted in some public benefit. Which is good, because if they only spent time with their own children and didn't provide a public benefit like curing cancer, then they would be shitty individuals, right? Because if a scientist or doctor isn't working on some huge, big issue like cancer, then they are practically killing everyone who dies from it.
The study in question Also I'll include the conclusion from the kids. >At the start, Mr Dahl’s description is quite good. Later on though the medicine would be really, really bad. We do not think that children will make this exact medicine, but they might make other “medicines” which could be poisonous. Lots of poisons can be found in people’s homes. Making potions is fun and lots can be learned with this. Just make sure the ingredients are not poisonous please!