Harold Hillman

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Harold Hillman is a controversial British scientist and an expert in the neurobiology of execution methods.

Hillman caused controversy in biological fields with his insistence that structures seen in cells under the electron microscope were little more than artefacts. He maintained that up to 90 per cet of the brain is made up of "a fine, granular material that is virtually liquid" and that the brain only has two cell types, as opposed to four.

Mainstream scientists maintained that as fixation techniques have been compared with other analysis techniques, that features observed in the electron microscope correlate with living cells, and that there is no explanation for why all the different techniques should produce identical artifacts, Hillman's complaint regarding electron microscopy was unfounded. The development of later techniques such as Cryo-electron microscopy further support the mainstream stance. ^[1]

Hillman's main field was neurobiology and resuscitation, in which his work was largely uncontroversial.

Hillman was awarded the 1997 Ig Nobel prize for peace for his report "The Possible Pain Experienced During Execution by Different Methods."^[2][3].

Hillman was a member of Amnesty International, and later produced research for the charity ^[4].

Hillman was formerly Reader in Physiology at the University of Surrey from 1965 until 1987, when he was forced to take early retirement at 57.

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