Home / Series / Storyville / Aired Order / Season 2009 / Episode 13

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?

English
  • Originally Aired June 1, 2009
  • Runtime 80 minutes
  • Content Rating United States of America TV-PG
  • Network BBC Four
  • Created June 2, 2016 by
    Administrator admin
  • Modified April 5, 2023 by
    mik1123
Name Type Role
Bosse Lindquist Director