The Genius and the Boys
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)
- Year: 2009
- Country: Sweden
- Genre: TV Movie, Documentary
- Studio: ARTE GEIE, BBC Storyville, DR-Dokumentar, Eight Millimetres, SVT Dokumentär, Svenska Filminstitutet
- Keyword: nobel prize, d. carleton gajdusek, prions, paedophile
- Director: Bosse Lindquist
- Cast: Michael Alpers, Warwick Anderson, Sena Anua, Carleton Gajdusek, Robert Gajdusek, Robert Gallo
