Mad scientist

Mad scientist (also called a mad doctor or mad professor or evil genius) is a scientist or professor who is mad – a synonym for insane, owing to a combination of unusual or unsettling personality traits and the unabashedly ambitious, taboo and/or hubristic nature of their experiments. The mad scientist may be villainous or antagonistic, benign or neutral; may be insane, eccentric, or clumsy; and often works with fictional technology or fails to recognize or value common human objections to attempting to play God. Some may have benevolent or good-spirited intentions, even if their actions are dangerous or questionable, which can make them accidental villains. Some are protagonists or allies thereof, such as Dexter in the animated series Dexter's Laboratory; Professor Calculus in The Adventures of Tintin; Dr. Muto; Professor Farnsworth on Futurama; Philo in UHF; Dr. Benjamin Jeffcoat of My Secret Identity; Emmett Brown of Back to the Future, Dr. Walter Bishop of Fringe, or Okabe Rintarou from the anime series Steins;Gate. Occasionally, there are parodies of mad scientists making fun of this stereotype.

Beside its popular diffusion this stereotype has some scientific grounds; various recent studies have highlighted the connection between creativity and mood disorders^[1] and between excellent school performance at age 16 and risk of developing adult bipolar disorder.^[2]

See also[]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mad scientists.

• Wikipedia's Mad scientist article.

Notes[]

• Garboden, Nick (2007). Mad Scientist or Angry Lab Tech: How to Spot Insanity. Portland: Doctored Papers. ISBN 1-56363-660-3.
• Haynes, Roslynn Doris (1994). From Faust to Strangelove: Representations of the Scientist in Western Literature. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. ISBN 0-8018-4801-6.
• Christopher Frayling – Mad, Bad and Dangerous?: The Scientist and the Cinema (Reaktion Books, 2005) ISBN 1-86189-255-1
• Junge, Torsten; Doerthe Ohlhoff (2004). Wahnsinnig genial: Der Mad Scientist Reader. Aschaffenburg: Alibri. ISBN 3-932710-79-7.
• Norton, Trevor (2010). Smoking Ears and Screaming Teeth. (A witty celebration of the great eccentrics ...). Century. ISBN 978-1-84605-569-0
• Schneider, Reto U. (2008). The Mad Science Book. 100 Amazing Experiments from the History of Science. London: Quercus. ISBN 978-1-84724-494-9
• Tudor, Andrew (1989). Monsters and Mad Scientists: A Cultural History of the Horror Movie. Oxford: Blackwell. ISBN 0-631-15279-2.
• Weart, Spencer R. (1988). Nuclear Fear: A History of Images. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

External links[]

• Analyzing the culture motif
  • Gary Hoppenstand, “Dinosaur Doctors and Jurassic Geniuses: The Changing Image of the Scientist in the Lost World Adventure”
  • The Scarecrow's Brain – images of the scientist in film, Christopher Frayling
  • Breaking Down the Stereotypes of Science by Recruiting Young Scientists
  • The Mad Scientist Database with links and Looks
  • Mad Science Experiments
  • TV Tropes article on the Mad Scientist stock character

References[]