Storyville
The Genius and the Boys
Not Rated
S13 • E15 Jun 6, 2009 80mD Carleton Gajdusek won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of Prions - the particles that would emerge as the cause of Mad Cow disease - while working with a cannibal tribe on New Guinea. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. But, at the height of his career, rumours began to spread he was a paedophile.
Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations?
This striking and powerful documentary explores the limits of insight and the power of self-delusion, through one of the century's true geniuses - a man prepared to defy convention and challenge people's most cherished beliefs, a man whose scientific brilliance seemed to blind many to his extraordinary personal failings.
Gajdusek would argue that if sex with children was okay in their own cultures, he wasn't wrong to join in. How could a great mind lose insight so totally, and why would the scientific community to which he was a hero be so quick to leap to his defence and dismiss the allegations?
This striking and powerful documentary explores the limits of insight and the power of self-delusion, through one of the century's true geniuses - a man prepared to defy convention and challenge people's most cherished beliefs, a man whose scientific brilliance seemed to blind many to his extraordinary personal failings.