# What scientist would make the most compelling biopic? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 17, 2009, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699 "2009-01-17T03:30:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/41 "2009-01-18T06:35:47Z")
Would aviation pioneer [Glenn Hammond Curtiss](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_H._Curtiss) be considered a “scientist”? He was an inventor, engineer, businessman and daredevil and he, rather than the Wright brothers, was the father of the airplane. None of the Wright’s inventions are still in use, while virtually all of Curtiss’s are. And for his trouble, he was sued into bankruptcy several times by the Wrights who believed they owned the patent on flight. The film could start with Curtiss racing his V8 motorcycle and setting a land speed record of 134 mph - in 1907, a feat that wouldn’t be matched until 1930. The thrilling climax to the film would be Curtiss’s flight from Albany to New York City along the Hudson, landing in Harlem, but then taking off again to fly the length of Manhattan and circling the Statue of Liberty and landing in Battery Park. I really want to see this film, but Hollywood would probably have a problem with the near-defied Wright brothers being shown as the litigious weasels they were in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aji_de_gallina/32/260_2.png) [@Aji\_de\_Gallina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aji_de_Gallina)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/42 "2009-01-18T07:10:50Z")
> [@Odesio](#): > > The Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe. Dude lost part of his nose in a duel and ended up wearing a prosthetic made of gold and silver. Born ca. 1550 and died around 1600. …and you could make it better by getting a good Kepler in the mix. Party-animal Brahe and uptight Kepler. There is a play (and a movie with the entire script) called Copenhagen about a meeting between Niels Bohr (my favourite scientist) and Hesemberg..really good. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 9:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/43 "2009-01-18T09:51:42Z")
[Geoffry Pyke](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Pyke), he was as nutty as they get, but at least some of his ideas turned out be useful, and he was responsible for the national heath system in Britain after the war. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/44 "2009-01-18T15:12:56Z")
I’d like to see a film made about Marconi and the invention of radio. Erik Larsen’s _Thunderstruck_ juxtaposed the research and application with the [Hawley Harvey Crippen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawley_Harvey_Crippen) case. That would make an awesome and compelling story. Robin ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/45 "2009-01-18T16:38:10Z")
[Joseph Priestley discoverer of oxygen](http://acswebcontent.acs.org/landmarks/landmarks/priestley/) ---
**Author:** ![Equipoise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/equipoise/32/151_2.png) [@Equipoise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Equipoise)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/46 "2009-01-18T17:01:35Z")
Ok, now I want to see all these movies! Damn. This thread has opened my eyes to a lot of people I hadn’t heard about. > [@StGermain](#): > > [**http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy\_Lavon\_Julian**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percy_Lavon_Julian). This little-known pioneering grandson of slaves was one of the first black scientists to be inducted into the National ACademy of Sciences. He attended a university that wouldn’t allow him to room in the dorms, and he had to eat and sleep in the attic of a frat house that allowed him to do odd jobs, but graduated valedictorian. DuPont rescinded a job offer when they realized he was black. His house was firebombed before his family moved in, then another dynamite attack after they moved in, but his neighbors formed a community group to support them. He triumphed, receiving over 130 chemical patents during his career. > > It could be a very dramtic and inspirational movie. With explosions. > > StG This guy. Wow. What he had to put up with just to do what he loved to do. Yet, all those asshole bigots who made his life hell, I’ll bet most of them weren’t making $50,000 a year in 1953! I don’t know what that would translate to in today’s dollars, but it sounds like a fortune back then. He was stable and confident enough that he could walk away from that kind of money, leaving that job after 18 years to found his own company! Reading that Wikipedia page also opened my eyes to the value of soybeans. I had no idea it was so versatile and, well, chemical. ---
**Author:** ![StGermain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/stgermain/32/2868_2.png) [@StGermain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StGermain)\ **Post date:** [January 18, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/47 "2009-01-18T17:39:57Z")
**Equipoise** - And he did it all while being handicapped with the name Percy. StG ---
**Author:** ![Invisible\_Chimp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f05b48/32.png) [@Invisible\_Chimp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Invisible_Chimp)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/48 "2009-01-19T04:26:48Z")
I can’t believe I nor anybody else mentioned **Werner von Braun** from Nazi to NASA. IMDb tells me there was a bad movie made in '60. **Alan Turing** he of the Test and the whole gay thing would make interesting drama ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/49 "2009-01-19T05:33:09Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > I can’t believe I nor anybody else mentioned > > **Werner von Braun** from Nazi to NASA. IMDb tells me there was a bad movie made in '60. I wonder if Tom Leher would be interested in writing the soundtrack? > [@](#): > > **Alan Turing** he of the Test and the whole gay thing would make interesting drama Too damn depressing. A man who, as much as any single person, beat the Nazis…and gets hounded to death because he’s gay. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/50 "2009-01-19T12:43:03Z")
**Auguste Piccard** –high altitude balloonist, inventor of pressurized aircraft cabins, investigator of Cosmic Rays, inventor of the bathyscape, deep sea researcher, Scientific Adventurer, & Challenger Of The Unknown! ---
**Author:** ![ivan\_astikov](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/58f4c7/32.png) [@ivan\_astikov](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivan_astikov)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/51 "2009-01-19T12:48:58Z")
For a loosely based definition of ‘scientist’, how about [Wilhelm Reich](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich)? Nutty as an almond cake, but never less than interesting. ---
**Author:** ![jinty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/dbc845/32.png) [@jinty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jinty)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 1:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/52 "2009-01-19T13:32:06Z")
> [@Ataraxy](#): > > I can’t believe I nor anybody else mentioned > > **Werner von Braun** from Nazi to NASA. IMDb tells me there was a bad movie made in '60. > > **Alan Turing** he of the Test and the whole gay thing would make interesting drama Inevitably, the BBC have anticipated you… 🙂 **Von Braun** “Space Race is a BBC docu-drama series first shown in Britain on BBC2 between September and October 2005, chronicling the major events and characters in the American/Soviet space race up to the first landing of a man on the moon. It focusses on Sergei Korolev, the Soviets’ chief rocket designer, and Wernher von Braun, his American counterpart. The series was a joint effort between British, German, American and Russian production teams.” > **[Space race (disambiguation)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Race_(TV))** > > The Space Race was a competition between the United States and the Soviet Union to explore outer space. > Space race, Space Racer, and their derivations may also refer to: **Turing** “[Breaking the Code] was adapted for television in a 1996 BBC filmed production also starring Jacobi, which won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award and was nominated for two BAFTA TV awards, for best single drama and best actor, and for a GLAAD Media Award.” > **[Breaking the Code](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_the_Code)** > > Breaking the Code is a 1986 British play by Hugh Whitemore about British mathematician Alan Turing, who was a key player in the breaking of the German Enigma code at Bletchley Park during World War II and a pioneer of computer science. The play thematically links Turing's cryptographic activities with his attempts to grapple with his homosexuality. > It was adapted into a 1996 television film directed by Herbert Wise, with Derek Jacobi reprising his stage role as Turing. > Following an eight-mon... ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/53 "2009-01-19T14:21:54Z")
Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and associate of Charles Babbage when the latter conceived of his analytical engine; regarded today as ‘the first programmer’ because of working out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers with Babbage’s proposed design. I always found it interesting that the pioneer of an even today so predominantly male discipline was a woman. Albert Hofmann, the discoverer of LSD; I think the bicycle day alone would make the film worth watching. Evariste Galois, who purportedly completed most of his contribution to modern mathematics – in the field of group theory, which he also gave its name – in a single night he worked through prior to dying the next day in a duel at the age of only 20. ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/54 "2009-01-19T14:51:35Z")
Half Man Half Wit writes: \> Ada Lovelace, daughter of Lord Byron and associate of Charles Babbage when \> the latter conceived of his analytical engine; regarded today as ‘the first \> programmer’ because of working out a method for calculating Bernoulli numbers \> with Babbage’s proposed design. I always found it interesting that the pioneer \> of an even today so predominantly male discipline was a woman. I’ve read that this is a misunderstanding of what Lovelace actually did. She wrote a long paper on how Babbage’s proposed machine was supposed to work. Nobody programmed the machine because it was never finished. In any case, for the first few years after computers (in the modern sense) were invented during World War II, most of the programmers were women. The scientists who created these computers and used them would just write down some equations and perhaps a flow chart and pass them on to women who were hired as their secretaries (although they often had college degrees in math). The secretaries were expected to do the translation of these equations and flow charts into computer language. The scientists considered this to be mere secretarial work. It took a while before it was realized that programming was a very difficult job. \> Evariste Galois, who purportedly completed most of his contribution to modern \> mathematics – in the field of group theory, which he also gave its name – in a \> single night he worked through prior to dying the next day in a duel at the age \> of only 20. Not true. He had written the papers months before. He had already submitted some to journals. They were rejected because the reviewers claimed (partly correctly) that he didn’t explain his ideas sufficiently. What he did the night before his duel was to write a cover note to his papers telling people who the papers should be given to in case of his death. What you’ve written above is the romantic (and commonly told) version of Galois’s night before the duel, but it’s not correct. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [January 19, 2009, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699/55 "2009-01-19T15:40:57Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I’ve read that this is a misunderstanding of what Lovelace actually did. She wrote a long paper on how Babbage’s proposed machine was supposed to work. I believe she actually translated an Italian mathematician’s work, and added some notes to that (those ending up longer than the original text), which contained the algorithm for calculating Bernoulli numbers; I’m not sure if it’s entirely her own, but it seems accepted that at least some contributions were, and Babbage himself certainly held her in high regard. > [@](#): > > Not true. He had written the papers months before. He had already submitted some to journals. They were rejected because the reviewers claimed (partly correctly) that he didn’t explain his ideas sufficiently. What he did the night before his duel was to write a cover note to his papers telling people who the papers should be given to in case of his death. What you’ve written above is the romantic (and commonly told) version of Galois’s night before the duel, but it’s not correct. Well, I did say ‘purportedly’, right? 😉 I suspected there was maybe some exaggeration to his tale, however, regarding the letter he wrote that night, Hermann Weyl (purportedly!) said: “This letter, if judged by the novelty and profundity of ideas it contains, is perhaps the most substantial piece of writing in the whole literature of mankind”, which does seem quite a bit of praise, especially coming from someone like Weyl. Thanks for your clarifications, though. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-scientist-would-make-the-most-compelling-biopic/481699.md?page=2)