Inspired by the Bobby Fischer threads-- We’re talkin’ hardcore brains here.
Most dopers are fairly intelligent, but are still able to function in public, so they don’t count. I grew up a block away from Kit Taylor (check this out), who was never a normal guy, but still a very cool dude. His father was also much fun, he’d teach physics with the old bed of nails, cinder block on your lap, girl swinging sledgehammer at it demonstration.
*I’ve met lots of mad scientists. They lack funds.
Yep, a friend from college and med school. Severe bipolar. Absolutely brilliant when hypo-manic (devouring 12 previously untouched chapters of hard core physics the night before the test, then scoring 99% on the test when the class average was about 43%), but clinically insane when manic or profoundly depressed.
He has published papers galore, is quite successful in advanced neuropharmacology & neurophysiology, and is watched most attentively and anxiously by family, friends, and colleagues for signs of tipping over into mania.
Me.
No, not me.
Who are you calling mad then?
Just dont ever,ever call me mad,I’m just eccentric is all.
There is this frequent customer of ours that was going for an advanced degree in mathematics before he went batshit crazy. I had to help take him down like a wild animal on a couple of occasions. He is currently a guest at Trenton Psychiatric Hospital.
That all depends on how much money/funding you have, and who your “research” is benefiting.
I used to drink with several physicists and scientists who worked at Fermilab. All of them are stone fucking nuts when you get a few drinks in them. Imagine Mr. Wizard with a garage full of lasers and God knows what else playing “Oh Yeah, Well Watch This!” after a bottle and a half of Jack. We were shining lasers on the moon! We blew things up! We made fireballs come out of the storm drains. Seriously hilarious stuff with a bunch of ex-pat Eastern European rocket scientists.
This sounds like you should make a season-long tv show.
Yep. An ex-roommate. Brilliant physicist, smart as hell, crazy as a loon. Convinced that the government was trying to ruin his life for 20 years because he decided not to build weapons for them. Insaaaaane stories of being tracked down in other countries and threatened and messed with.
Very long story short, after being shipped back from Finland with a doctor and two nurses and committed to a Northern California mental hoosegow for a couple of weeks returned to the house crazier than ever and blew his head off in the back yard a couple of weeks after my husband and I moved out. Made me sad, I tells ya. He was a very good person aside from the crazy.
I knew a guy who had his name changed to that very thing. He was a nut bag.
I want to party with you and your buddies.