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The Top 10 Mad Scientists

livescience.com — From mildly eccentric to downright wacky, these 10 hyper-intelligent characters didn't just march to a different beat, they each played their own tune altogether, all while changing how we look at the world.

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  • spazmotron, on 07/25/2008, -2/+10I love mad scientists. :O)
  • benroy, on 07/26/2008, -1/+32"What are we going to do tonight Brain?"
    "The same thing we do every night Pinky, try to take over the world."
  • macattack5, on 07/26/2008, -8/+2wait.. why isn't tom cruise on there??
    • dcbebop, on 07/26/2008, -1/+4because he's not a scientist? there's no science in scientology. it's the same principle of there being nothing patriotic about the patriot act.
    • ohitsme553, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1or no hedge in hedgehogs
    • dcbebop, on 07/27/2008, -0/+1or no ham in hambur... oh forget it.
  • hiPpymIck, on 07/26/2008, -0/+6some vid sound bytes of Richard Feynman..
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon ...
  • luap119, on 07/26/2008, -1/+5Timothy Leary?
  • Tyrghast, on 07/26/2008, -0/+9Other than the fact that Tesla was quite off his rocker according to history, what is 'mad' about these guys? Frankly, calling them 'mad' is rather insulting.
    • xxpor, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2Einstein was also quite off his rocker. I live near Princeton, and some old folks still tell stories of how he would walk on Nassau St. (the street right in front of Princeton U.) in his robe and slippers on freezing days.
    • PhantomBantam, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Oppenheimer tried to poison a teacher with an apple in graduate school. Why they left that out, I don't know.
  • Iwantawii, on 07/26/2008, -2/+4Mad Scientist = Badass Scientist
  • Deaus, on 07/26/2008, -3/+22Burried for 10 different pages.

    10 - Johann Dippel
    Born and raised in Germany's Castle Frankenstein, 17th-century alchemist Johann Dippel became noted as the inventor of Prussian Blue, one of the first synthetic chemical dyes, but most famous for his endless quest for elixirs of immortality. Rumors of his experiments on human corpses may have inspired Mary Shelley's legendary character that bore the castle's name.

    9 - Wernher von Braun
    At the age of 12, an intrepid Wernher von Braun loaded his toy wagon with some firecrackers and shot off across a crowded German street. It was a sign of things to come. The brains behind Hitler's V-2 rocket program arrived in the United States as a prisoner of war and went on to be its champion of space and lunar exploration. While putting people on the moon, von Braun also mastered scuba diving and philosophy.

    8 - Robert Oppenheimer
    The Manhattan Project's head honcho was never reserved about his sympathies for socialism and his conflicted feelings over dropping the atomic bombs, and was ultimately stripped of his academic and political power for it. Despite those controversies, he's also remembered as a man his grad students called "Oppie," who learned Dutch and Sanskrit just because, and quoted a Hindu holy text at the sight of the first atomic bomb test.

    7 - Freeman Dyson
    Respected nuclear physicist and prolific writer Freeman Dyson moonlights as a science fiction writer's dream. In 1960, he touted the idea that in the future humans may need to construct an artificial shell, now called the Dyson Sphere, that would encircle the entire solar system and make maximum use of the sun's energy. Dyson wholeheartedly believes in extraterrestrial life and thinks we'll make contact within the next few decades.

    6 - Richard Feynman
    Part of the Manhattan Project's team of geniuses that developed the atomic bomb, physicist Richard Feynman went on to become one of the most important scientists of the late 20th century. Far from the stuffy professor type, this free spirit explored music and nature, decoded Mayan hieroglyphics and picked locks in his spare time.

    5 - Jack Parsons
    When Jack Parsons wasn't busy co-founding the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he was practicing magic and calling himself the Antichrist. This mysterious bad boy of the space program had no formal education, yet still managed to develop a rocket fuel that would guide the United States through WWII and into space. Tragically yet appropriately dramatic, Parsons blew himself up during a lab experiment at his home in 1952.

    4 - James Lovelock
    This modern environmental scientist and inventor of the world-as-superorganism Gaia Hypothesis has been dispensing dire predictions about climate change and our world for decades now, many of which have come true. He's not shy about spreading one ultra-gloomy forecast; given the current ecological crisis, a massive die-off of about 80 percent of humans by 2100 is inevitable, he believes.

    3 - Nikola Tesla
    This is the guy you picture pulling down a giant electric switch in a shower of fiery sparks. Tesla, who is credited with the invention of the wireless radio and the AC generator that kick-started the electrical age was even born, fittingly, during a violent lightning storm in 1856. He was also known as a manic genius that slept little and loved to put on a good show, often using his own body as a conductor in public demonstrations.

    2 - da Vinci
    Between painting the most revered masterpieces of Renaissance art, Leonardo da Vinci somehow still found time to tap into his inner eccentric. The Italian's scientific sketchbooks, most written in mirror-image cursive, are a fantasyland of oddball machines and brilliant designs, many which would never come to fruition and some that would be built many centuries later, like his rudimentary helicopter.

    1 - Albert Einstein
    He's certainly got the mad scientist hair thing down. One of the last century's most celebrated scientists, Albert Einstein turned physics on its head with his theories of relativity, and made enormous contributions to the fields of gravitation and quantum theory. He also liked to take his sailboat out on the water on windless days, "just for the challenge."
    • cutekelvins, on 07/26/2008, -0/+18 - Robert Oppenheimer
      The Manhattan Project's head honcho was never reserved about his sympathies for socialism and his conflicted feelings over dropping the atomic bombs, and was ultimately stripped of his academic and political power for it. Despite those controversies, he's also remembered as a man his grad students called "Oppie," who learned Dutch and Sanskrit just because, and quoted a Hindu holy text at the sight of the first atomic bomb test.

      Quoting Hindu texts make him mad.

      Define MAD.
      • PhantomBantam, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2He also tried to poison a teacher with a poison apple in graduate school. Why they left that out, I don't know.
    • chrisloft, on 07/26/2008, -0/+0Thank you, Deaus - otherwise I would not have read these ten little snippets of absolute rubbish. This is almost spam.
    • statuescrumble, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1They make 10x more money having it on 10 pages than on 1 page.
    • MSP1, on 07/26/2008, -1/+1Too lazy, or more likely, too out of shape to be able to click ten times? Its the web man. They can have as many pages as they like. It's not the dark ages where everything had to fit on one scroll of parchment. Come join the rest of us in the 21st century!
      • renski13, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1It's not the laziness. It's exactly what statuescrumble said. They're making 10x as much money from you clicking when they could as easily have put it all on one page.
  • colinmhayes, on 07/26/2008, -0/+11Fails to mention Feynman's awesome bongo skills.
  • mdaize, on 07/26/2008, -3/+16Buried as inaccurate as Dr. Horrible is not included....
  • josephbloseph, on 07/26/2008, -2/+15What about Dr Horrible? He has a PhD in Horribleness!
  • Totz83, on 07/26/2008, -0/+5They'd be even madder if they had to endure another ***** SLIDESHOW!
  • badbadlevibrown, on 07/26/2008, -0/+0i agree with iwantawii. but then again i never really saw da Vinci as a "badass"
  • Nairebis, on 07/26/2008, -0/+12Bah! You want a mad scientist? I'll show you a mad scientist!

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Forssman

    Now *that's* a crazy mofo mad scientist.
  • Grandpohbah, on 07/26/2008, -0/+9The biggest one he left off was Isaac Newton. Not only was he one of the smartest and most influential scientist in the history of humanity, he also was rather weird.
    • loudnobnoxious, on 07/26/2008, -0/+3Agreed, and Tesla should have been #1
    • RSS14, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Are you serious? Tesla runs Edison's *****. Edison was an ***** who screwed Tesla over. Tesla was the true genius, and he was considered a "mad scientist" as well. He used to work while sitting next to an operating Tesla coil! He devised a "death ray" which shoots a small particle at high velocity to shoot down aircraft! Never forget Tesla contributions.
  • sooska, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2They left out Alan Turing and John Forbes Nash?
    • johnnysaucepn, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Turing wasn't mad - he was gay. Of course, at the time, that was considered a mental illness - let's be grateful we've got beyond that.
      • sooska, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Turing rode to work everyday wearing a gasmask ;)
  • Kahnza, on 07/26/2008, -0/+8Professor Hubert Farnsworth!
  • ohitsme553, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1is http://images.livescience.com/images/Oppenheimer-h ... a cardboard cut-out?
  • Cheeseburgers, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Where is Dr. Clayton Forrester on this list?
  • Pusod, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Dean Kamen is a crazy mofo!
  • whyisntcakesin, on 07/26/2008, -1/+0Needs more Albert Hoffmann
  • mnky9800n, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1I am going to have to say that none of these people are mad scientists, except perhaps Jack Parsons.
    • Puirtabeul, on 07/27/2008, -0/+0I was going to post the exact same thing. Most of these people are just scientists who are more personable/eccentric/well known than others, but Parsons... I think Parsons is the real deal. Anyone who hangs out with (and gets predictably ripped off by) L. Ron Hubbard, pisses off Aleister Crowley, invokes Pan before a rocket launch AND invents rocket fuel deserves at least a sticker. At least. A true modern day Edward Kelley.
  • Cheeseburgers, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Dr. Henry Walton Jones, Jr?

    "He no nuts...he CWAZY!"
  • magnus3994, on 07/26/2008, -0/+3'Richard Feynman

    Part of the Manhattan Project's team of geniuses that developed the atomic bomb, physicist Richard Feynman went on to become one of the most important scientists of the late 20th century. Far from the stuffy professor type, this free spirit explored music and nature, decoded Mayan hieroglyphics and picked locks in his spare time.'

    WOW THATS SO MAD!
  • swaters210, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2Jack Parsons should have been number one. This guy kept volatile liquids in his house and befriended L. Ron Hubbard. Check out this video of him and his friends (from CALTECH) testing out their first solid rocket engine. They later got a military contract which lead to spaceflight as we know it. Also this dude excelled in chemistry with little or no education, good for him.

    http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/jplhistory/videos/rocketme ...
  • Culex, on 07/26/2008, -0/+7Dugg for Nikola Tesla. The man was an absolute genius. I feel he should have easily made number one on the list.
    • drpleau, on 07/26/2008, -0/+3You beat me to it. I agree, this list is kind of weak, but had to digg it because of Tesla. A mad scientist indeed.
    • Aidje, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2I don't know whether to digg the list because Tesla is on it, or to bury it because he isn't number 1.
  • chadell, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery. There
    comes a leap in consciousness, call it intuition or what you
    will, and the solution comes to you and you don't know how or
    why.

    -- Albert Einstein
  • CaptainHarlock, on 07/26/2008, -0/+2Parsons is the only really mad one in the list. The fact he blew himself up during an experiment at home puts him at the top.
  • rhino5, on 07/26/2008, -0/+1Josef Mengele anyone? He was the angel of death and was pretty mad and his research is still used today (even though it was a product of torture).
  • g4howie, on 07/27/2008, -0/+1Buried as inaccurate; they did not mention anything regarding Einstein's work in electromagnetism, which he received a Nobel Prize for.
  • P5ycHo, on 07/27/2008, -0/+1EPIC FAIL for using pagination
  • Barryke, on 07/27/2008, -0/+1Truly mad scientists live low profile. Dugg anyhow.
  • veveze, on 07/28/2008, -0/+0Parsons is totally the best.
  • Duvali, on 07/28/2008, -0/+0tesla > einstein
  •  

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