# Mad Scientists **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 12, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661 "2015-08-12T15:01:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/1 "2015-08-12T15:01:05Z")
What are some examples of scientists who did really good work but then at some point went off the rails and spent (wasted) their time doing essentially crackpot work? I’m most interested in cases where it should have been clear to the person that what they were doing was nuts, even by the knowledge available to them at the time. Some examples: Isaac Newton produced arguably the most important work in the history of science (the Principia), invented calculus, did major work in optics, then spent his later years trying to find hidden messages in the Bible. Nicola Tesla invented the AC motor and many other of the basic elements of our AC electrical system, then spent the last half of his life obsessed with wireless transmission of electrical power, something he should have known was impossible. I would exclude Johannes Kepler from this list. While superficially it seems he made important advances in astronomy (Kepler’s three laws), but wasted time on ideas like the Music of the Spheres and his Platonic solid model of the solar system, astronomy was in such an infant state at that time that one can’t really say he should have known better. I’d also exclude Kurt Godel. He made important breakthroughs in mathematics and was insane in his later years, but his insanity mostly affected his personal life; he didn’t really do any crackpot work that I’m aware of. Georg Cantor is borderline. He essentially created the field of transfinite analysis, and then had mental problems in his later years. He spent some time trying to prove that Shakespeare didn’t write Shakespeare’s plays, but otherwise didn’t do much crackpot scientific work. –Mark ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/2 "2015-08-12T15:32:47Z")
Einstein could potentially fit the bill (although I don’t think anybody would call him mad-as-in-insane). He spent the second half of his life fruitlessly trying to debunk quantum theory. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/3 "2015-08-12T15:51:27Z")
Linus Pauling and his Vitamin C mania. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/4 "2015-08-12T16:02:58Z")
Linus Pauling won a Nobel Prize for chemistry but went way off the rails in his advocacy of megavitamin therapy.\* Yeah, like **Beowulf** said.:smack: ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/5 "2015-08-12T16:19:59Z")
Edward Teller worked on the Manhattan Project and then spend the rest of his life as a cheerleader for nuclear bombs, trying to create a brand new harbor in Alaska by dropping bombs on it, creating plans for bombing the moon, generally advising the government to build more nukes and use them wherever possible. I believe he tried to talk Johnson or Nixon into nuking Vietnam. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/6 "2015-08-12T16:22:26Z")
> [@DrCube](#): > > Edward Teller worked on the Manhattan Project and then spend the rest of his life as a cheerleader for nuclear bombs, trying to create a brand new harbor in Alaska by dropping bombs on it, creating plans for bombing the moon, generally advising the government to build more nukes and use them wherever possible. I believe he tried to talk Johnson or Nixon into nuking Vietnam. His only regret was never seeing a thermonuclear bomb used on anyone. Oppenheimer said “I have become Death, the Destroyer”, Teller responded “That is so cool!” ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/7 "2015-08-12T16:35:02Z")
William Shockley invented the transistor and then later advocated eugenics. He was also famously difficult to work with, so that eight scientists left his company and created a new one, Fairchild Semiconductor. From that, most of Silicon Valley resulted. ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/8 "2015-08-12T16:49:21Z")
Brian Josephson won a Nobel Prize for discovering the Josephson effect (a quantum thing) and did other groundbreaking work in quantum mechanics. But since then he’s gotten into all kinds of weirdness, like telepathy, telekinesis, homeopathy, and cold fusion. He’s seriously gone off the rails. ---
**Author:** ![oft\_wears\_hats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/7993a0/32.png) [@oft\_wears\_hats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/oft_wears_hats)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/9 "2015-08-12T16:53:45Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > Nicola Tesla invented the AC motor and many other of the basic elements of our AC electrical system, then spent the last half of his life obsessed with wireless transmission of electrical power, something he should have known was impossible. Not sure it’s fair to include Tesla on the list. He broke a lot of ground and trying like hell to break more doesn’t seem crackpot so much as possibly misguided with the benefit of hindsight. Also, we do have some forms of [wireless power transmission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power) these days, so I don’t agree that it’s impossible. My entry is [Henry Heimlich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Heimlich). Invented the incredibly lifesaving Heimlich Maneuver and Heimlich Chest Drain Valve. But he later went on to advocate the use of the Heimlich Maneuver for many other conditions where it was not proven to be helpful and in many cases was harmful (such as treating drowning victims). Heimlich has also been involved in malariotherapy, which is generally considered to be a terrible idea. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/10 "2015-08-12T17:35:20Z")
R. Bucky Fuller was on and off the rails most of his career. _I Seem to be a Verb_ ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/11 "2015-08-12T17:44:42Z")
Wilhelm Reich might qualify. The question in his case isn’t whether he went off the rails in his later career but whether he was ever actually on the rails in his early years. ---
**Author:** ![Learjeff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/94ad74/32.png) [@Learjeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Learjeff)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/12 "2015-08-12T18:27:06Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > Not sure it’s fair to include Tesla on the list. He broke a lot of ground and trying like hell to break more doesn’t seem crackpot so much as possibly misguided with the benefit of hindsight. Also, we do have some forms of [wireless power transmission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power) these days, so I don’t agree that it’s impossible. > > My entry is [Henry Heimlich](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Heimlich). Invented the incredibly lifesaving Heimlich Maneuver and Heimlich Chest Drain Valve. But he later went on to advocate the use of the Heimlich Maneuver for many other conditions where it was not proven to be helpful and in many cases was harmful (such as treating drowning victims). Heimlich has also been involved in malariotherapy, which is generally considered to be a terrible idea. Right: wireless AC transmission works; its just too easy to steal. Also, I wonder about the efficiency. Tesla was socially off the rails, but that doesn’t count. Regarding Heimlich, at least he kept his sense of humor. I told my parents the following joke after hearing it: A woman starts choking in a restaurant. A man jumps up from his table, tells people to make room. He bends her over a table, pulls her skirt up and panties down and gives her a big lick where the sun don’t shine. Astonished, she coughs up the bit of chicken. Everyone gives the man a strange look, and he says, “What? Haven’t you all heard of the hind-lick manoeuvre?” Well, my parents told friends of theirs who just happened to know Dr. H well enough that they relayed the joke, and they reported that he laughed his ass off. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/13 "2015-08-12T19:00:34Z")
[Dr. Walter Freeman](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Jackson_Freeman_II) was the first neurologist in Washington, DC and was the head of the neurology department at George Washington University. Then he decided to go on a barnstorming tour of the US, giving out [lobotomies](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/607/in-medicine-whats-the-difference-between-an-ectomy-an-ostomy-and-an-otomy) to all comers at $25 a pop. > [@](#): > > Following his development of the icepick lobotomy, Freeman began traveling across the country visiting mental institutions in his personal van, which he called the “lobotomobile.” :eek: > [@](#): > > After four decades Freeman had personally performed as many as 3,439 lobotomy surgeries in 23 states, of which 2,500 used his ice-pick procedure, despite the fact that he had no formal surgical training. In February 1967, Freeman performed his final surgery on Helen Mortensen. Mortensen was a longterm patient and was receiving her third lobotomy from Freeman. She died of a cerebral hemorrhage as did many of his other 100 patients and he was finally banned from performing surgery. His patients often had to be retaught how to eat and use the bathroom. Relapses were common. Some never recovered and about fifteen percent died from the procedure. In 1951, one patient at Iowa’s Cherokee Mental Health Institute died when he stopped for a photo and the surgical instrument penetrated too far into the patient’s brain. Freeman wore neither glove nor mask during these procedures. He lobotomized 19 minors including a 4 year old child. :mad: Seriously, this was one of the darker moments in medicine, and it happened within living memory. There were a number of guys involved in developing the lobotomy, but Dr. Freeman was really quite mad about it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/14 "2015-08-12T19:18:26Z")
Dr. Frederick Seitz did break bad. Very, very bad. > **[Frederick Seitz](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Frederick_Seitz)** > > Frederick Seitz, PhD, (1911–2008) was an American physicist and expert for hire. > [@](#): > > Actual science > > Seitz was actually a trailblazer in the field of solid-state physics. Along with Eugene Wigner, he developed the concept of the Wigner-Seitz unit cell, which is used in the study of crystalline materials.[1] He published The Modern Theory of Solids in 1940, a foundational text in solid-state physics. He served as a member of the Manhattan Project and was later involved in nuclear energy projects. Seitz served as the president of the National Academy of Sciences during the 1960s, when he commissioned the then-largest particle accelerator in the world, Fermilab. > [@](#): > > I’ve got the “data” if you’ve got the money > > But then, in the 1980s, Seitz decided to become a shill for any corporation willing to pay him enough. He, Robert Jastrow[wp] and William Nierenberg[wp] co-founded the George C. Marshall Institute (a right-wing think tank named after a famous liberal Democrat) in 1984 to hype Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars program. One of the initial goals of the organization was to attack the work done by Carl Sagan and his colleagues on nuclear winter. During this time, he was also employed by R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. and helped spread propaganda denying links between smoking and cancer. > [@](#): > > In the early '90s, he joined the board of another think tank, the Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP), headed by physicist turned uber-shill, S. Fred Singer. Singer and Seitz’s career paths were mirror images. The two co-authored a few works together, denying the dangers of ozone depletion and global warming. Through the Marshall Institute, Seitz helped Arthur Robinson spread the bogus Oregon Petition of 30,000+ “scientists” who "disagreed with the consensus on global warming. The NAS repudiated him. Naturally, the Rockefeller Institute, which he also held a position at, was rolling in oil money. When the tobacco companies were investigated a message from an executive was found were even the executive realized that indeed, madness was involved with the expert for hire they had, it did not matter much to the merchants of doubt: From a leaked 1989 memo: “Bill told me that Dr. Seitz is quite elderly and not sufficiently rational to offer advice." ---
**Author:** ![Deeg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/deeg/32/2955_2.png) [@Deeg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deeg)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/15 "2015-08-12T19:34:13Z")
> [@oft\_wears\_hats](#): > > Not sure it’s fair to include Tesla on the list. He broke a lot of ground and trying like hell to break more doesn’t seem crackpot so much as possibly misguided with the benefit of hindsight. Also, we do have some forms of [wireless power transmission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_power) these days, so I don’t agree that it’s impossible. I dunno; as soon as one understands the inverse-square law the practicality of broadcast power becomes largely crackpot, at least in the way Tesla was envisioning. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/16 "2015-08-12T19:40:54Z")
James Watson of double helix fame is another guy who has expressed quite [racist views](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Watson#Provocative_comments). Francis Crick later got into studying consciousness, and his [views](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Astonishing_Hypothesis) I find incredibly simplistic and useless, but not in the realm of “mad”. Thinking you’ve made an amazing breakthrough when you are decades behind the field isn’t a good sign. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/17 "2015-08-12T20:05:31Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![CurtC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ce73a5/32.png) [@CurtC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CurtC)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/18 "2015-08-12T20:26:24Z")
> [@ftg](#): > > Francis Crick later got into studying consciousness, and his [views](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Astonishing_Hypothesis) I find incredibly simplistic and useless, but not in the realm of “mad”. Thinking you’ve made an amazing breakthrough when you are decades behind the field isn’t a good sign. I wasn’t aware of this book, but from reading the Wikipedia page, it sounds to me like he was writing a popular book explaining advances in neuroscience and their implications to the lay public, and not pushing the frontiers of knowledge. Was there something in there that was wrong, or are you complaining that it just wasn’t cutting-edge enough? ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/19 "2015-08-12T20:29:07Z")
Blondlot, and “N Rays”: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper-Ren%C3%A9\_Blondlot](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prosper-Ren%C3%A9_Blondlot) ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2015, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661/20 "2015-08-12T20:37:42Z")
William Crookes, the inventor of the [Crookes tube](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crookes_tube), was a firm believer in Spiritualism. Such beliefs were surprisingly common among some very intelligent people in the late 19th century, but Crookes was particularly active in the movement, and undertook studies in which he concluded that the paranormal powers of several mediums were genuine. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-scientists/727661.md?page=2)