The Genius and the Boys
Synopsis
D 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. He was a star of the scientific world. Over his years working amongst the tribes of the South Seas, he adopted 57 kids, bringing them to a new life in Washington DC. His adoptions were hailed as wonderful fatherly beneficence. 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 like Gajdusek's 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? (Storyville)
Where to watch
Not currently available to stream in United States.
Top cast
Bosse Lindquist
Narrator
Michael Alpers
Himself - Professor of Medicine - Expert on Kuru
Warwick Anderson
Professor in Medical Anthropology
Sena Anua
Medical Reporter - PNGIMR
Daniel Carleton Gajdusek
Himself - Virologist - Anthropologist - Linguist - Author - etc
Robert Gajdusek
Brother
Robert Gallo
Himself - Director, Institute of Human Virology and Co-discoverer HIV
Oliver Sacks
Himself - Professor of Neurology and Author
Lovisa Mbagintao
Secretary
Benoît B. Mandelbrot
Himself - Former Professor of Mathematics - Yale and Princeton (as Benoit Mandelbrot)
