NASA gave money for a wild animal test and nobody guessed what happened next
NASA, Dolphins, and a Surprising Experiment
A long time ago, in the 1960s, NASA gave money to help many different science projects. One of those projects was about dolphins. Margaret Howe Lovatt lived on St. Thomas, a small island in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She was curious about dolphins. When she heard there was a dolphin lab on the island, she wanted to see it.
Margaret did not have a science degree. She called herself a naturalist, which means she loved nature and learning about animals. She was brave and drove to the lab just to see if she could help. The lab director, Gregory Bateson, liked her excitement and let her come back to help with the dolphins.
At the lab, Margaret met Dr. John Lilly. He was a brain scientist, or neuroscientist. Dr. Lilly was building a dolphin lab with money from NASA and the United States Navy. He hoped to learn how to talk to dolphins. If he could do that, maybe people could use those skills to talk to aliens from other planets one day!
Dr. Lilly made a special house for dolphins called the “Dolphinarium.” The Dolphinarium was a big room filled with water so the dolphins could live there. There were three dolphins in the house. Two were girls named Sissy and Pamela. The third was a younger boy dolphin named Peter.
Trying to Teach a Dolphin to Talk
Margaret was very interested in Peter. She wanted to teach him to talk like people. Dolphins can make noises that sound like words. She thought if she spent a lot of time with Peter, he would learn to speak better.
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So, Margaret decided to move into the Dolphinarium. She lived with Peter every day. She talked to him all the time, just like a mom talks to her baby. Margaret hoped Peter would copy her words and learn to say them.
But as Peter grew up, he started acting differently. Peter was becoming an adult dolphin, and he began to have strong feelings, called urges. These feelings made it hard for Margaret to teach Peter. Sometimes, she had to send Peter to be with the girl dolphins, Sissy and Pamela, so he could calm down.
Margaret said she got tired of stopping the lessons all the time. She thought it took too long to send Peter away and bring him back. She decided to help Peter herself, so he would not be distracted. Margaret explained, "Peter liked to be with me. He would rub himself on my knee, or my foot, or my hand. At first, I would put him downstairs with the girls."
She added, "I wasn’t uncomfortable with it, as long as it wasn’t rough. It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch—just get rid of it, scratch it and move on. And that’s how it seemed to work out."
Margaret said it was not something private. People in the lab could see it. She said, "It wasn’t sexual on my part. Sensuous perhaps. It seemed to me that it made the bond closer. Not because of the sexual activity, but because of the lack of having to keep breaking. And that’s really all it was. I was there to get to know Peter. That was part of Peter."
When the World Found Out
Some people heard about what was happening between Margaret and Peter. A magazine called Hustler wrote about it. They made the story sound even more strange and dramatic than it really was. This made people talk about the experiment in a bad way.
Because of the bad publicity, Dr. Lilly’s dolphin house lost money from the people who were paying for it. The experiment ended early. Margaret tried to explain her side of the story. She said she just wanted to learn from Peter and help him talk.
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Margaret later said, "The worst experiment in the world, I’ve read somewhere, was me and Peter. That’s fine, I don’t mind. But that was not the point of it, nor the result of it. So I just ignore it."
She talked about her story in a BBC documentary called “The Girl Who Talked to Dolphins.”
Teaching Dolphins to Speak
Margaret really wanted to teach Peter to speak English. She said, "I chose to work with Peter because he had not had any human-like sound training and the other two had." She believed Peter could learn new things if she spent enough time with him.
But Peter was also interested in Margaret in other ways. Andy Williamson, who took care of the dolphins' health, said dolphins can have strong urges. At first, Margaret tried to help Peter by sending him to the girl dolphins. But it became hard to keep moving Peter back and forth, so she helped Peter herself.
In the BBC documentary, Margaret explained, "It was just easier to incorporate that and let it happen. It was very precious, it was very gentle. Peter was right there, he knew that I was right there."
She said that Peter’s actions were not about her. She was just trying to help him so she could get back to teaching him. Margaret said, "It would just become part of what was going on, like an itch—just get rid of it, scratch it and move on. And that’s really all it was. I was there to get to know Peter. That was part of Peter."
But when the story was printed in the magazine, people only talked about the strange part. Margaret said, "It’s a bit uncomfortable… But that was not the point of it, nor the result of it. So I just ignore it."
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A Stuntman’s Dangerous Job
Harry O’Connor was a stuntman. He did dangerous tricks in movies. He worked on movies like Charlie’s Angels, Soldier, and The Perfect Storm. Harry was born in Michigan in 1957. His first movie was Firestorm in 1998.
In 2002, Harry worked as a stunt double for Vin Diesel in the movie xXx. Vin Diesel played a guy named Xander Cage, who worked for the US government. Harry did the dangerous scenes for Vin Diesel.
Harry’s job was very risky. In one scene, he had to zip-line down from a paraglider near a bridge. But something went wrong. According to Entertainment Tonight, Harry hit the bridge very fast and died. He was 45 years old.
Iva Knolova, from the Prague police, said, "He was being pulled at high speed on a paraglider and hit a pillar of the Palacky bridge. He died on the spot due to heavy injuries."
Rob Cohen, the movie’s director, talked about the accident. Vin Diesel said, “That was a big eye opener for me and that probably more than anything has made me that focused on safety and rehearsal. I probably take it—that much more serious because of it.”
People said Harry was a good friend and loved flying and skydiving. He used to be a Navy SEAL. In the movie xXx, there is a tribute to Harry. The people who worked with him called him a “beloved friend.”
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Plastic Surgery Gone Wrong
In Queens, New York, a woman named Maria Penaloza Cabrera wanted her butt implants removed. She went to a man named Felipe Hoyos-Foronda for help. Felipe was 38 years old and from Colombia. Police said he was running an unlicensed clinic. That means he was not allowed to do surgeries.
Felipe gave Maria a drug called lidocaine with a syringe. This drug is supposed to help with pain, but Maria had a bad reaction. She went into cardiac arrest, which means her heart stopped working. According to court papers, this happened on March 30.
Felipe got scared and left. He tried to escape to another country. He called emergency services before leaving, but Maria was already very sick. She was rushed to Mount Sinai Queens hospital. The doctors found she had no brain activity and signs of “lidocaine toxicity.”
The police found Felipe at JFK Airport. He had bought a ticket to Colombia. The police arrested him and charged him with second-degree assault and practicing medicine without a license. He was put in jail and was not allowed to leave.
The National Institutes of Health says lidocaine can cause serious problems. It can make people restless, have muscle twitches, or even go into a coma or die if too much is given.
Maria’s family was very sad. She had two children. Her family started a GoFundMe page to help bring her family from Colombia and pay for her funeral. They wrote, “Today, Friday, April 11, the doctors have made the decision to disconnect her, without giving time for her family in Colombia—her parents and her eldest son—to travel to say goodbye to her and give her the goodbye she deserves.”
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They asked for help so Maria’s family could say goodbye to her.
Police Try to Stop Illegal Surgeries
The police said Felipe advertised his services on TikTok. He posted about Botox and other treatments. He showed before and after pictures of his patients, even though he was not a real doctor in the US.
The police told other people who had surgery by Felipe to come forward and talk to them. They want to stop people from doing illegal surgeries that can hurt others.
After the police found Felipe, he was charged with second-degree assault and unauthorized practice of a profession. He was held in jail without bail. The police said, “If you had a surgery with him, please tell us your story.”
The Chief Medical Examiner is still looking into how Maria died. The case is not over yet.
Learning From These Stories
These true stories show that being careful is very important. NASA’s dolphin experiment taught us that science can be strange, and sometimes people do not understand what is really happening. Margaret tried to teach a dolphin to talk, but the experiment ended because people focused on the wrong things.
The story of Harry O’Connor reminds us that stunt work in movies is very dangerous, and safety is very important. Harry’s accident made other actors and stuntmen practice harder and think more about safety.
Maria’s surgery story tells us that it is not safe to have surgery by someone who is not a real doctor. It is important to check if your doctor is licensed. If a doctor is not allowed to do surgery, it can be very dangerous.
If you or someone you know needs a medical procedure, always check if the doctor is real and has a license. You can ask the hospital or a teacher for help.
Always be careful when you hear strange stories. Ask questions and talk to adults you trust. Science, movies, and medicine are interesting, but it is important to stay safe and make good choices.
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