Popular Science
Why Do We Put Holes In Our Head?
The $15,000 A.I. from 1983: Scraping, grinding, or drilling a hole through the thick, hard skull that evolution developed to protect our most sensitive contents might be one of humanity’s worst ideas — and also one of our best. We have no idea how it started, or why the first trepanner thought it would fix…
Popular Science
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@TrevorZero
March 6, 2024 at 3:37 pm
if God didn’t want me to put holes in my head why did he give me five?
@TheBadSpoon
March 6, 2024 at 6:35 pm
Real
@rolloxra670
March 7, 2024 at 12:08 am
Seven if you count your eye sockets
@niamotullah99
March 7, 2024 at 1:21 am
Exactly, he already gave you so u don’t have to
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 2:52 pm
TREV! This is not a how-to guide!
@memeslich
March 6, 2024 at 4:08 pm
meme accounts show a lot of women getting hurt too
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:53 pm
doing dumb things is the great unifier of all demographics
@SnowyOwl369
March 6, 2024 at 4:24 pm
Who else is here from Vsauce2?
@T-J-S
March 6, 2024 at 4:30 pm
I am, and he always makes my day better while I watch his videos! He’s an amazing teacher
@The.171
March 6, 2024 at 5:57 pm
Me
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:46 pm
me
@catherinebaldwin6580
March 7, 2024 at 10:05 pm
Me
@Bombingham
March 6, 2024 at 4:56 pm
God: gives humans intelligence
Humans: ima put a hole in my head
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:31 pm
you can’t reach great heights without first knowing where rock bottom is
@Bombingham
March 6, 2024 at 10:09 pm
@@popularscience true, someone had to “invent” common sense after all
@ddturnerphd
March 6, 2024 at 4:57 pm
What an insightful video on trephenation, not at all boring.
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:30 pm
thank you — and we had to leave out some really good stuff (YouTube would’ve age-restricted it for “gore” despite it being purely medical/scientific)
@ddturnerphd
March 6, 2024 at 7:44 pm
@popularscience I appreciate your whittling through reams of material and material on reaming that could lead to circular arguments.
@catherinebaldwin6580
March 7, 2024 at 10:03 pm
I thought it was very boring. Afterall, he spent the hole time boring through Joe rind.
@ddturnerphd
March 7, 2024 at 10:09 pm
@@catherinebaldwin6580 That was the ‘hole point of my pun!
@Conrad500
March 6, 2024 at 5:57 pm
This video blew my mind. Well, at least it put a hole in it
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:20 pm
Good, but did the explosion and the small channel it created allow the evil spirits to escape?
@TheBadSpoon
March 6, 2024 at 6:38 pm
They always did say I’ve got a head like a hole.
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 7:02 pm
Black as your soul?
@Astrolab.insights
March 6, 2024 at 6:45 pm
It suggested the other new video but not this one.
@popularscience
March 6, 2024 at 6:56 pm
the algorithm works in mysterious ways
@kae3037
March 6, 2024 at 7:33 pm
So that’s how they tried to cure Joe’s melon-choly 🤔 😉
@AlternateHoney
March 6, 2024 at 9:52 pm
At least we’ve gotten better at doing the bad thing
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 1:05 pm
sometimes that’s all we can hope for
@tahiryaqubov3548
March 6, 2024 at 11:30 pm
Found another rare video that i will talk about to my friends
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 1:00 pm
please tell your closest 50,000 friends and family to like and subscribe
@superfishman3243
March 7, 2024 at 12:38 am
Gonna do a presentation on trepination as a treatment for possesion in Africa. Thanks for more inspiration!
Don’t know why you didn’t link the first article you used though.
@superfishman3243
March 7, 2024 at 12:38 am
Gonna do a presentation on trepination as a treatment for possesion in Africa. Thanks for more inspiration!
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 12:52 pm
Heyyy that’s awesome, one of the most comprehensive articles is from Charles Gross (whose book we used) writing in The MIT Press Reader, check it out:
@superfishman3243
March 8, 2024 at 4:22 pm
Okay, I’ll check it out.
@KyleIng
March 7, 2024 at 1:39 am
Hey man just found your videos today, they are so amazing I just wanted to let you know your going places. Keep entertaining man!
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 12:46 pm
thanks Kyle, many more on the way — new video next week!
@KyleIng
March 8, 2024 at 1:31 pm
@@popularscience keep ‘em coming!
@johnnydarling8021
March 7, 2024 at 2:48 am
Glad that you’re still making videos.
I love your other channel, Sauce, too.
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 11:59 am
thanks, Johnny — and yeah, Vsauce2 continuing as normal (new video out over there next week!) and a new one each week here. lots and lots of content is happening
@noob19087
March 7, 2024 at 3:27 am
Only a thousand views? I figured this to have a few million.
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 11:58 am
hopefully we get there, it’ll take a little while to get the algorithm rolling. but that’s why we love the early crowd who’s with us from the start
@noooosleeplol
March 7, 2024 at 3:36 am
I’m just here before the channel blows up more. Glad I have a backlog of the old content to watch now too, and whatever the future holds for this teams channel. I’ve been having a science itch. Great work as always for like the last 15 years at this point, Kevin.
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 11:57 am
thanks, nosleep! Really excited to re-invent the content here and roll it out every single week, retro tech, science documentaries, visualizations, and stories. 15 years and 50 more!
@BeastBishop
March 7, 2024 at 6:42 am
Neutral Link: is it Dream, or is it advertising?
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 11:54 am
we are probably about to find out
@jimmerlin3852
March 7, 2024 at 8:44 am
Is this where the saying “I need this like a “hole in the head” originated?
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 11:51 am
It seems that way, jimmerlin — there was some coverage in the 60’s/70’s about the counter-culture fringe elements (like Huges and his followers) engaging in trepanation, which had to have come off as being nuts to most people
@salvsays
March 8, 2024 at 12:57 am
Id do it
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 7:53 am
It’s actually really surprising how little pushback people seem to have had with this. The very sick, hurt, and unconscious people aside, there weren’t too many indications that people put up a crazy fight to avoid trepanation, or maybe it just got dropped from the narratives. History is written by the drillers.
@salvsays
March 8, 2024 at 8:29 am
Lol 😂 amazing. I love your work on V2. Loved this.
@aL3891_
March 8, 2024 at 4:35 am
i do it to get the bad thoughts out
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 7:51 am
Sure, but now that there’s a hole, won’t it be easier for new ones — and WORSE ones — to make their way in? Cranial conundrum.
@jasperekkel
March 8, 2024 at 1:01 pm
Just found this channel. Enjoying it so far!
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 1:24 pm
ayyy jasper, welcome — hopefully you like the next video as well, coming next week!
@bagel29
March 8, 2024 at 1:08 pm
2:05 TABBERRRRRRR
@popularscience
March 8, 2024 at 1:16 pm
missed a chance for a JSchlatt cameo :'(
@jaizo_
March 8, 2024 at 7:16 pm
I am so confused by why this channel exists, what was popular science/why is vsauce doing this?
@matianlong7907
March 9, 2024 at 6:43 am
Interestingly, I’ve been to a traditional Tibetan Medicine hospital and the practice of a small trepanation of the skull to let blood flowing away is displayed as a traditional practice and seems its still practiced in that hospital. I guess it’s maybe based on a similar concept of that of Mr. Mellon about reducing the blood pressure
@bagel29
March 9, 2024 at 12:11 pm
Something something head like a hole by nine inch nails something
@jasonsharpe9766
March 10, 2024 at 7:09 pm
You look like the lead singer of Korn
@danthelatch
March 11, 2024 at 6:45 pm
Looking forward to the next video where you show us how to do a lobotomy on a cantaloupe
@Crouchdown
March 12, 2024 at 9:42 am
Wait… Matthew Taber wrote a medical journal?
@Grill_Jones
March 12, 2024 at 6:42 pm
good video
@forbiddenera
March 12, 2024 at 8:12 pm
I’m gonna have nightmares now.😢
@SirYenner
March 12, 2024 at 8:19 pm
I recommend getting a CT scan before self trepanation so you’ll know precisely how deep to drill.
@TheSimArchitect
March 14, 2024 at 5:38 pm
Perhaps he just wanted a headphone jack but he was too ashamed to admit it.
@robertkerr4199
March 14, 2024 at 8:57 pm
I had a friend who got into black magic, then drilled a hole in his head to release the demons. He’s not right…
@Joeyzoom
March 15, 2024 at 1:50 pm
You need a hole in your head like you need a hole in your head.
@secondlifearound
March 15, 2024 at 9:00 pm
Patient: “Doctor I have a very bad stomach ache.”
Doctor: “Let me work on the top of your head for a sec.”
@obrecht72
March 16, 2024 at 5:22 am
Quote Morpheus, “This may feel a little weird. “
@ilpi7216
March 16, 2024 at 7:56 am
Mankind YEARNS for the lobotomy, and it did so since the dawn of time
@BobofWOGGLE
March 16, 2024 at 10:22 am
Needed this video like I needed a hole in the head.
So like, surprisingly a lot actually.
@lordterra1377
March 17, 2024 at 1:11 am
Democrats have a huge hole in there heads, they cant define what a women is.
@Umuthoper
March 17, 2024 at 4:29 pm
So, just to be sure the holes are covered with skin right?
@ristube3319
March 18, 2024 at 6:35 pm
15:54 why not put it in a vice?
@Yourmission9
March 19, 2024 at 7:46 pm
This is much like the medical “science” of blood letting and humors
@goldendk9
March 20, 2024 at 7:54 pm
Helium holes.
@alby13
March 21, 2024 at 4:19 am
This is because the brain is the least understood part of the human body.
@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim
March 22, 2024 at 1:52 pm
Kirkland vsauce 😂
@SDRIFTERAbdlmounaim
March 22, 2024 at 1:56 pm
people really had it tough before the invention of Aspirin 😂
@bradzandmaxplays
March 23, 2024 at 8:25 am
wow
@sevenbender7927
March 23, 2024 at 9:30 pm
Hey Mr. Host Guy. I’m getting some Frankie Muniz vibes from you
@LIVE781REDRUM
March 25, 2024 at 8:59 am
THIS IS THE SUPERB CONTENT I NEED IN MY LIFE. I HOPE YOU DO MORE OLD GADGETS OUT OF POPULAR SCIENCE MAGAZINES.
@shornoMALONEY
April 4, 2024 at 5:00 pm
There’s a great episode of Hamilton’s Pharmacopeia where he interviews Amanda Feilding, “My LSD-Induced Love Affair With a Pigeon”. She’s now a prominent researcher in the field of psychedelic medicine, specifically 5-MeO-DMT if I recall.
@No.Good.Nickname
April 4, 2024 at 5:44 pm
I’m just thinking about these holes looking likes they where inflicted with warhammers.
@CDRaff
April 4, 2024 at 6:10 pm
This might be the most uncomfortable video I have ever watched.
@Dan-Simms
April 4, 2024 at 8:18 pm
Until his hand got sore haha!
Bet buddies head was a lot more sore.
Wild
@TheSkypetube
April 5, 2024 at 12:22 am
Well look at it this way. This is the oldest surviving surgery that we know of. It was also a very dangerous surgery performed by top doctors. Those doctors needed a livelihood and if they have no one to teach their very important medical procedure they will be out of a job and their decendents will have to look work else where instead in top of the line bone cracking
@xander9460
April 12, 2024 at 1:37 pm
Oke definitely subbed. Excellent quality! Despite me squirming throughout the whole episode in discomfort =S
@popularscience
April 12, 2024 at 1:44 pm
Awesome, thank you! There’s another one of these documentary videos coming next week. 🙂
@Talon3000
April 12, 2024 at 2:19 pm
11:30 I’d totally wear a part of my skull around my neck, that sounds badass.
@michellebeckham5310
April 12, 2024 at 3:57 pm
I would guess migraines , that’s what feel like doing when i get one.
@garatenadialga6886
April 13, 2024 at 3:27 am
We are created we dont evolve
@SOUL-KING-93
April 15, 2024 at 5:28 am
Created by what?
@ShockedCaucasian
April 13, 2024 at 3:32 am
You have explained my curiosity about trepanning, brought a whole new meaning to being “bored/Bored to death” and have also made me thankful for Excedrine headache pills! cannot wait to see this channel blow up just like the Vsauce Channels did 🙂
@naiknaik8812
April 13, 2024 at 10:18 am
hell yeah more kevin content
@AnglophobiaIsevil7
April 13, 2024 at 1:30 pm
For fun obviously
@AnglophobiaIsevil7
April 13, 2024 at 1:30 pm
How great was trepang 2 though?
@charliebot6027
April 14, 2024 at 11:27 am
*guy losing liters of blood from a hole in his head*
“Whoah I feel lighter now haha this is crazy! My blood pressure is going down and I feel like taking a nap whoah”
@lightspeedjunky
April 15, 2024 at 10:40 pm
They did surgery on a watermelon!
@Simosayso
April 16, 2024 at 4:45 pm
Don;t know how you missed the fact bushmen (San) used to also do this practice including the whole necklace thing.
@Mr371312
April 17, 2024 at 1:08 pm
“Trepanning” used (mistakenly)as noun “trepang” – “hole in the head” makes now sense for a video game of said name. Otherwise “sea cucumber” didnt.
@GUNDAMxGSRx
April 17, 2024 at 11:35 pm
It’s weird how we came into the world in a body without an instruction manual or a schematic 😂
@95R_1NT39RA_
April 17, 2024 at 11:35 pm
It’s weird how we came into the world in a body without an instruction manual or a schematic 😂
@2010RSHACKS
April 18, 2024 at 6:32 am
I thought it was for spiritual purposes? People today do it because they say it heightens their spiritual awareness or connection to god or something like that?
@TheGreenDragon419.9
April 18, 2024 at 9:22 am
I have constant pressure in my cheek bones and AC bice my eyes, also diagnosed with persistent postural perception disorder, I have been thinking of this.
@edwardpm89
April 22, 2024 at 6:24 pm
I’m surprised no one mentioned Humunculus, a manga that talks a lot about trepanation and the main guy has it done on him. It’s a very good psychological manga, many good topics on mental illnesses and psychological disorders. Joe Meller’s story seems to be the base for the manga concept of wanting to expand consciousness, psychic powers and such
@Chris-pb3se
April 23, 2024 at 12:51 am
I want to know all the ways they tried and rejected. I feel like the Chinese probably tried black powder for everything once they invented it. Pretty sure I would’ve.
@belialofeden
April 23, 2024 at 1:23 am
I have persistent headaches and it’s always in the same spot behind my left eye in the temple area. Have considered gouging out the eye and drilling my head to make the pain stop lol. They say the brain doesnt have pain receptors but some headaches suck pretty bad.
@lewiitoons4227
April 24, 2024 at 8:01 pm
She missed the opportunity to say “trepanation for the nation”
@Raziel1984
April 25, 2024 at 11:34 am
everytime i nowadays hear about elon musk i more and more think that he would resemble an anitchrist more then anyone else …. and i am an atheist XD
@ethandudeman8359
April 26, 2024 at 4:33 am
0 second comment: i always thought it was to “let the demons out” (relieve intercranial pressure)
we’ll see i guess
@inkyjill
April 27, 2024 at 11:25 pm
“It would have worked, too, if you wouldn’t have stopped me.”
@GrannySoupLadle
April 28, 2024 at 9:48 pm
Cuz our brain is in a lil box
@potunny
April 29, 2024 at 1:08 am
facepalm
@joshm3342
April 29, 2024 at 7:18 am
I’m fairly well educated, but have never heard of this before. Fascinating! Personally, I don’t even want a tattoo, or to skydive, and I think a sunroof on a car is a safety hazard. But I like learning about all the unusual things people do. How many politicians have extra holes?
@Striker9
April 29, 2024 at 11:47 am
Bad blood always sounded like they knew about infections in a rudimentary way.
@Brendawallingbear
April 29, 2024 at 5:56 pm
No way! I’d never think, maybe I will feel better with a hole in my skull.”
So weird.
@cequiestbon3676
April 30, 2024 at 12:55 am
I really want that stick now, but don’t trust myself on that rock
@curtisnewton895
April 30, 2024 at 6:11 pm
gotta be the most annoying guy on youtube
@hemlocktea6643
May 1, 2024 at 12:30 am
Brain surgery kinda solved the pressure in my head. Hole in my head has at least one benefit
@tjingle29
May 1, 2024 at 1:18 am
if my doctor name is Hippocrates i ain’t going
@tjingle29
May 1, 2024 at 1:20 am
and if she ain’t wear the ring i made from my skull, we calling it off
@Twobrosk
May 1, 2024 at 5:05 am
This dude looks like a young version of bushcampdad
@cannibalbananas
May 1, 2024 at 8:38 pm
I 1st heard about brain trepanation when I was around 17, and when I developed migraines a year later, I understood why people went that route. Never tried it myself, but the thought crossed my mind a lot then as my migraines used to be pretty bad.
@OsirisMalkovich
May 2, 2024 at 7:58 pm
“Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head.”
“That would have worked if you hadn’t stopped me.”
_- Ghostbusters, 1984_
@Coyt415
May 2, 2024 at 10:25 pm
Compared to a watermelon a human skull has water between it and the brain. Gotta remember that.
@ZarDieZayne
May 7, 2024 at 12:34 am
Who’s WE???
@heathenthatheretic5960
May 7, 2024 at 7:32 pm
I’ve never cringed so hard in my life listening to a video…
This is sickening.
Elon”s studies are far from what these ppl were doing.
@xtraa
May 9, 2024 at 4:25 am
Colonization on Mars is as much bullshit. Mars has no magnetic poles, so an adults brain on Mars will be damaged due to unshielded cosmic rays within a couple of weeks or even days. Or we become marsian caveman..
@Absbor
May 9, 2024 at 1:58 pm
“bloodbrainvolume” german writing law
@taicyrrussell1333
May 10, 2024 at 3:04 pm
TLDR: cause some people are fucked in the head. Ba dum ch.
@tylerleggett5088
May 11, 2024 at 12:48 am
Ive had a craniotomy fenestration and shunt placement due to a cyst taking up the entire right hemisphere. Along with 8 brain surgeries, ive had a couple subdurals and an epidural hematoma the size of a softball. I couldn’t imagine having any of that done before “modern” medicine. Inconceivable how this was done thousands of years ago.
@keithmichael112
May 11, 2024 at 1:58 am
Fun fact: John Lennon asked Paul McCartney if he would ever consider doing this
@richardbruce5214
May 11, 2024 at 7:37 pm
Because wife gets sore between legs
@wonkyfug
May 11, 2024 at 8:42 pm
because evolution exists to dig holes into stinky tunnel
@kujojotarostandoceanman2641
May 12, 2024 at 11:07 am
Joe Mellen, really, the whole skit was a foreshadowing
@kujojotarostandoceanman2641
May 12, 2024 at 11:14 am
I like that Jeo says he got high and enlightenment from the hole being drilled and the blood letting out, meanwhile that’s just symptons of blood loss
@SkullyStitches
May 13, 2024 at 1:30 am
God no thanks. Can’t even imagine the pain they had to sit through.
@mountainman8357
May 13, 2024 at 2:40 am
The ending quote was absolutely amazing. I love your videos, dont you make videos for v-sauce? Absolutely great hosting. Keep it up my guy.
@SlingerMarshall
May 15, 2024 at 9:00 am
so what you’re saying is.. I should try this at home
@Lone432345
May 18, 2024 at 1:14 am
Joe Mellen really should cared a lot about his Mellen.
@dannykeeler4018
May 18, 2024 at 1:35 am
Those there are speed holes
@Rajesh-Koothrappali
May 18, 2024 at 6:55 am
Alternate title *strangest ways to open a water Mellon”
@euboy6
May 29, 2024 at 5:51 pm
first victor cheese now joe melon 😞😞
@dreamersdisease2481
June 8, 2024 at 3:10 am
Pressure poppers
@Speedojesus
June 11, 2024 at 9:59 am
Kinda related but not really, but as someone that’s gotten more tooth extractions than they’d like to say, partially due to genetics and bad habits during childhood. I’ve always thought about how barbaric it all kinda is, not in a bad or disparaging way regarding the profession #AppreciateDentists, but more so in just how brute force it can sometimes be. Like, obviously with scans like x-rays it’s been made much more precise and anaesthetic makes the process feel more like someone’s shoving their thumb into your sinuses or jaw, as opposed to the horrific pain I imagine early dentistry would’ve been.
Though the auditory, and tactile experience of the cracking of your own teeth whilst a dentist is pulling on a molar like it’s a nail stuck in a knot in a 2×4, is very much unnerving sometimes. Reminds you that apart from newer procedures regarding certain types of extractions or fillings where proper oral surgery is done prior, the process itself when you’re in the chair hasn’t changed much in a while. Just that we’ve gotten more advanced in the techniques surrounding diagnoses and patient comfort, as well as controlling infection and using tools like suction hoses with irrigation, and UV activated polymers to help.
And even cooler, is the fact that I had/have (it’s in one of my drawers somewhere, I got to keep it) a semi-rare type of molar due to the genes controlling tooth formation, which made two of the extraction a bit of a chore considering they had more roots that were knurled. Thus making it kinda hooked into my gums.
@adcaptandumvulgus4252
June 19, 2024 at 1:26 pm
Wow it sure is a good thing you use that cut proof glove you’re definitely safe for that thing we should make body armor out of it too actually that’s some very durable stuff
@jessesegrist5868
June 21, 2024 at 10:20 pm
So I actually have a permanent hole in my head. I was born with a rare genetic disorder called Saethre Chotzen syndrome, where some of my skull bones were fused together. The doctors chose to remove a large chunk of my skull in order to allow my head to develop normally. This was in the 1980s when that happened, and I still have the hole in my head to this day.
@k.p.c7779
July 14, 2024 at 10:42 pm
My dad had a brain biopsy, and they never “covered” the hole they made.
@Lightblue2222
June 24, 2024 at 3:00 am
I’ve had some bad pressure headaches where my natural desire is to drill a hole in my head… now imagen if all the doctors around me agreed
@Tesseract95
July 9, 2024 at 12:48 pm
WTF did i just watch ? LoL
@baruchben-david4196
July 18, 2024 at 6:21 pm
I don’t think mental illness was a reason for trepanation. In many cultures, people who would be considered schizophrenic or otherwise having severe mental illness, were often regarded as special messengers from the gods, or having the ability to see into the spirit realm, etc. Chances are good that our ancestors felt the same. Mental illness wouldn’t have been seen as a problem, but as a gift.