a group of COs at the University of Rochester rode stationary bikes in 123 degree heat on empty stomachs. In a different experiment, CO participants at Indiana University slept in frigid, temperature-controlled rooms wearing soaked clothing. The results of this study were used to gain information for the army on how different types of clothing responded to cold weather. Experiments also helped to decide adequate survival rations, calculate the duration of time men could survive on life rafts, and calculate the amount of time men could survive drinking only ocean water. Willingness to participate and public sentiment Although every COs experience was different, overall, even with the harsh experimental conditions, most participants described their work in the Guinea Pig Units positively. At the time the experiments were thought of as “work of national importance” and an overwhelming number of the COs preferred this form of objection to other CPS manual labor tasks. In fact, "the amount of men not selected for these dreadful experiments after volunteering outpaced the numbers actually chosen". Over 40 years after the experiment, CO Peter D. Watson, discussing his experiences in the Guinea Pig Units at the University of Rochester's medical school, said “it was a chance to serve and to do something worthwhile.’’ They took pride in their efforts, as their research directly helped soldiers during WWII and continues to have a lasting effect on the medical field today. Many COs reported that this work served as a form of humanitarian work that aligned with their pacifist and religious beliefs. Although public views toward COs were generally negative, as they were viewed as cowardly, emasculate, and untrustworthy, after 1944 when the government released their participation in experiments, the media covered the COs involved in experimentation in a positive light. The Minnesota Starvation Experiment was featured in Life Magazine in 1945, making it the first of the Guinea Pig Experiments to be widely publicized. After this publication, other newspapers and journals including The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, World-Telegram, Survey Graphic, and Coronet Magazine began discussing these COs positively. This press coverage tended to focus on the sacrifice the COs were making and the risks they were facing, depicting them as far more patriotic and heroic than prior representations. Ethical considerations Despite the positive medical impact these studies using COs have had, scholars have deemed the experiments unethical by modern standards. In most of the experiments, the participants