Mad scientist

A mad scientist is a stock character of popular fiction, either villainous, or benign and scatterbrained. Whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, the mad scientist is often working with some utterly fictional technology in order to forward his or her evil schemes. Alternatively, he or she doesn't see the evil that will ensue from the hubris of "playing God". Because of recent profusion of geek culture modern mad scientist depictions are often satirical and humorous rather than critical. Some are actually protagonists, such as Dexter in the cartoon series Dexter's Laboratory.

Real-life prototypes

The scientists of literature and popular imagination have better defined our image of "mad science" than have actual scientists, because that is their function: to reflect back our own prejudices. "Popular belief and behavior are influenced more by images than by demonstrable facts" (Roslynn Doris Haynes, 1994). Some real-life scientists, not necessarily madmen, whose personalities (and sometimes, appearances) have contributed to the stereotype:

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• Jeremy Bentham, British philosopher who had himself mummified.
• Wernher von Braun, development of rocket technology in Germany and the United States.
• Gerald Bull, engineer.
• Horace Donisthorpe, myrmecologist.
• Thomas Alva Edison, "The Wizard of Menlo Park", inventor.
• Albert Einstein, physicist, whose hairstyle (or perhaps lack thereof...) is commonly given to mad scientists.
• Philo Farnsworth, inventor of television, and the first nuclear fusion device.
• Francis Galton, British scientist who developed statistics and eugenics.
• Dr. Ishii Shiro, Lieutenant General of Unit 731 of the Imperial Japanese Army.
• Trofim Lysenko, Soviet biologist who terrorized Russian genetics.
• Stanley Milgram, psychologist who pioneered work on obedience studies.
• Harry Harlow, psychologist who wanted to study love through its deprivation.
• Oliver Heaviside, British scientist who replaced his furniture with giant granite blocks.
• Herman Kahn, futurist who articulated policy of mutually assured destruction.
• Dr. Josef Mengele, Nazi "Angel of Death", doctor at Auschwitz.
• Professor Julius Sumner Miller.
• Patrick Moore, British astronomer.
• Jack Parsons, rocket propulsion researcher.
• Edward Teller, nuclear physicist who worked to develop the hydrogen bomb.
• Nikola Tesla, physicist, mathematician, inventor, and electrical engineer.
• B. F. Skinner, behaviorist and utopian.

Related: List of people widely considered eccentric, List of mad scientists

Related Topics:
List of people widely considered eccentric - List of mad scientists

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