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.

Untouched fields

Fields that are largely untapped by mad scientists include:

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• civil engineering, excepting demolitions.
• economics
• geology, except where trying to destroy the world, where physics is more involved than true geology.
• metallurgy, unless trying to make armor and the like, when metals with rather implausible strength may be used
• pure mathematics, though the main protagonist in the film Pi is a mathematician who arguably embodies some aspects of this archetype. Real-life Unabomber Ted Kaczinski, who was also a mathematician, also springs to mind.
• social sciences