Radioactive Oatmeal | MIT’s Experiments on Institutionalized Children
episode
Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities
32 min
3 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 2 hours ago
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Who was Fred Boyce and how did he first learn about the MIT Science Club?
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For most of his childhood, Fred Boyce was told he was stupid. He was a resident at the Fernold School in Massachusetts, an institution for children the state called feeble-minded. Inside the Fernold School, residents were regularly insulted by the adults in charge. They were told over and over again that they were morons. And then one day, Fred got a very different message. He was invited to join something called the Science Club. He was told he'd been chosen because he was one of the smarter boys. He was excited because being in the science club came with privileges: field trips, gifts, and a special breakfast. Every morning, Fred and the other boys in the science club ate in a different area. From everyone else.
They didn't know why, but they were told they were helping science. What no one told them was that the oatmeal they were eating was radioactive, and they had no idea that they were part of an experiment run by researchers at MIT. I'm Margot Gray. This week on Campus Files, the truth behind MIT Science Club.
Today, nutritional information is everywhere. We think about fiber, sugar, protein, and we wanna know how much of it is in our food. You can actually walk into a supermarket today and find products like protein Doritos, Proin Pop-Tarts, Proin Pancake Mix. This focus on nutrition is part of our everyday lives. But if you go back in time to the early 20th century, that wasn't always the case.
There wasn't the kind of focus that people have on food today. I think people believed in the miracle of abundance. As products were rushed into market, they were embraced without much criticism.
This is Michael D'Antonio. He's the author of The State Boys Rebellion. The book tells the history of the Fernald School.
There was no real reference to organic food. There was very little attention paid to things like pesticides.
That began to change around World War II. Nutrition became a national concern. It mattered for soldiers, it mattered for workers on the home front. And in the middle of the war, the Food and Nutrition Board put out the country's first recommended dietary allowances, how much energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals Americans should be getting. This meant nutrition was becoming more scientific, and some of that science was coming out of MIT. The university had a specialized program in nutritional biochemistry. One of its leading figures was Robert Harris, a respected scientist in the field. He later served on the World Health Organization's Expert Committee on Nutrition. And in the late 1940s, an unusual opportunity crossed his desk.
Okay. It came from the Quaker Oats Company.
Your best bet for hot breakfast is Quaker Oats.
Why did MIT and Quaker Oats decide to test oatmeal with radioactive tracers on children?
Delicious, nutritious, makes you feel ambitious. Yes, if you want to be a star in sports and school activities, make your hot cereal Quaker Oats.
Quaker oats had a problem. Research was coming out that cast doubt on the nutritional value of oats. The concern was that oats contain a compound called phytate, which could interfere with the body's absorption of minerals like iron and calcium. Quaker Oats wanted to push back against that claim. So the company decided to help fund a study at MIT.
I don't know of another experiment in which a commercial company got involved at this level, trying to think if I've I've run across it anywhere else, and I don't think so.
MIT researchers had access to a powerful new tool, radioactive isotopes. The idea was that you could take a mineral, like calcium or iron, and mark it with a radioactive tracer. That radioactive tracer let researchers follow what happened to the mineral inside the body, almost like putting a tracking device on it.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Who was Fred Boyce and how did he first learn about the MIT Science Club?
0:01–3:52
2
Why did MIT and Quaker Oats decide to test oatmeal with radioactive tracers on children?
3:52–8:14
3
What made the Fernald (formerly Fernald) School an ideal site for the experiment?
8:14–12:42
4
How were the children recruited, rewarded, and controlled within the Science Club?
12:42–16:11
5
What did the researchers discover about oats and mineral absorption?
16:11–20:39
6
How did the 1993 Boston Globe investigation uncover the hidden records?
20:39–24:48
7
What were the legal and political repercussions after the story broke?
24:48–28:16
8
How did the Fernald experiment influence modern standards for informed consent?
28:16–32:25
Speakers
3 identifiedMore from Campus Files: Scandals, Secrets & Crimes at American Universities
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