Elmer Gates (1859-1923) was an inventor who did a lot of self-experimentation or self-observation. He wanted to figure out how to make his mind work better:
He kept voluminous records on his own physiology, taking urine samples several times a day and blood samples. He would take his temperature. He was doing this to find out what his physiological state was when he was most productive.
Gates was ahead of his time. Studies of body temperature and simple mental problems (e.g., arithmetic) suggest your brain works best when your body temperature is highest — around 5 or 6 pm for most people. When you are most likely to be stuck in traffic.
A Washington Post article about Gates.
Thanks to Robin Hanson.
How interesting. So math is better to take at Pm and not early in the morning as traditional pedagogy used to do.
OK, Seth since oils can raise basal body temperatures, you need to perform your omega-3 tests in and out of a walk-in refrigerator.
…and he was even interested in combinatorial chemistry (another of Seth’s pet topics):
“[Elmer Gate’s] metallurgical room is for investigations in
alloys. He proposes to make a complete series of 10,000 (or so)
varying percentages of alloys of certain two metals, and test the
properties of the alloys.”
letter by Herman T. Lukens, The American Journal of Psychology, Vol.10, No. 1 (Oct. 1898), pp. 163-164. (from https://www.elmergates.com/visits/lukens.pdf )
way ahead of his time…although self-experimentation was common back then, combinatorial chemistry was not.