Popular Science

The Experiment That Tried to Weigh the Human Soul

It’s a little complicated to weigh a dying person on a hospital bed, but that didn’t deter Duncan MacDougall. In the early 20th century, MacDougall’s unique bed-scale detected that 21 grams left the human body at the moment of death. He had finally discovered it: the weigh of the human soul … or so he…

Published

2 days ago

April 7, 2026

CYBER TECH TV

He had finally discovered it: the weigh of the human soul … or so he thought.

Read more about the cultural legacy of MacDougall’s flawed but influential experiment:

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15 Comments

@benmcreynolds8581

April 7, 2026 at 3:10 pm

I learned about this from one of my all time favorite TV shows “Dark Matters: Twisted But True” ~I highly recommend checking this show out. I almost never see anybody talk about this show..

Reply
@piconano

April 7, 2026 at 3:14 pm

God created this universe so that he could live in it as life, everywhere possible.
There is no I. I am a part of God that will never die. Soul or not.

Reply
- @littlefrank90
  
  April 7, 2026 at 5:12 pm
  
  good for you
  
  Reply
- @arcanics1971
  
  April 8, 2026 at 5:34 am
  
  Nah, it was the Cosmic Whelk who invented the universe. He did it one Tuesday evening after a particularly spicy vindaloo. May his Holy molluscular univalveness endure for eternity. Asnails.
  
  Reply
@Absbor

April 7, 2026 at 3:19 pm

Meanwhile ebay: “you’re not allowed to sell something which doesn’t exist or parts of a human body.”

Reply
@wizzelhoart

April 7, 2026 at 3:27 pm

was a great Movie. Del Toro was amazing

Reply
@Richthofen80

April 7, 2026 at 4:02 pm

Haver-hill… someone not from massachusetts lol.

Reply
@Jolfgard

April 7, 2026 at 4:42 pm

So 21 grams of what exactly? What is the carrier, or at least the physical correlate to a soul? And via which channel is it emitted from the body? I mean, if we can reliably replicate the phenomenon, the next step is trying to THOROUGHLY explain it.

Reply
@Baylow94

April 7, 2026 at 5:10 pm

6:19 One Piece Mentioned! Yo-Ho-Ho-HOOOOOOO
The One Piec is REALLLLLLL

Reply
@likealeica

April 7, 2026 at 7:00 pm

So Vsauce2 finally finished her transition, and she looks way better than I expected

Reply
@msm1player

April 7, 2026 at 10:58 pm

21 grams would be about half the internet worth of data weight…. sounds right

Reply
@Doppel_MM

April 8, 2026 at 5:54 am

2:43

And that’s precisely the problem. Air HAS weight. If he didn’t measure any difference, then it’s due to his measuring method.
A football without air weighs less than a football with air; it’s a matter of the accuracy of the instruments.

So if he can’t even achieve that level of accuracy, how does he expect to weigh something like a soul?!?

Reply
@GamesFromSpace

April 8, 2026 at 1:00 pm

The generic keyboard beats don’t add anything to the video.

Reply
@superdinoman

April 8, 2026 at 4:02 pm

If you double 21 you get 42, don’t panic

Reply
@TomTwain

April 8, 2026 at 6:15 pm

Infuriating presentation… lost my concentration… really irritating BG music and ranty voice…👎

Reply

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