2.0 The Death Penalty

Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.

J.R.R Tolkein

So I too some time out to consider what subject I would like to learn a bit about next and then last night it jumped out at me. I was taking the metro home after a short hour long stint at work, reading Taiwan’s leading English language newspaper “The China Post” when a small story on the 29th page caught my attention. A small protest had been held in Chang Kai Shek memorial hall on the day of Taiwan’s birthday 10/10. One of the  40 something attendees of this protest stood out to me. A life size cardboard cut out of a tall and handsome young man. It turned out the effigy and protest were both in honor of a man wrongly executed here in Taiwan in 1997. He has posthumously been exonerated of all charges and the real guilty party has come forward and confessed.

1.3 – Josef Mengele

A Real Lunatic

While the “insanity” of the scientists we have previously covered in this subject is up for debate, none can deny that some of the experiments carried out during the Nazi’s time in power in Germany were terrifyingly peculiar. We will take a look at a man known as the Angel of Death and the twisted acts he carried out in the name of science during his time at the infamous concentration camp Auschwitz. Mengele really pushed the boundaries of lunacy taking a sick pleasure in his deplorable acts and human experimentation.

1.2 – Nikola Tesla

Nikola Tesla is arguably the poster child of the mad scientist world. He was the closest in real life to the stereotypical mad scientist we see today in everything from kids movies to video games. Nikola was arguably one of the greatest minds of the 20th century doing very early work on X-Rays and radio transmission but later in life his research led him closer to science fiction then real science. With secret  blueprints for gigantic death rays in his head, concepts for a projector of human thoughts and plans to wirelessly transmit electricity across the Atlantic. Tesla earned a reputation for being a bit of a kook.

1.1 – Harry Harlow

The Nature of Love

Harry Harlow at first seems an amiable fellow, he sought to find out the true nature of love. With the theory that no love is greater than that of a mother for it’s baby he pursued some truly atrocious experiments on monkeys over the course of his career. Was he mad or just misunderstood?

1.0 – Mad Scientists

• 

• Harry Harlow
• Nikola Tesla
• Nasty Nazi’s

Introduction

This month we take a trip into the wacky wonderful world of science and science fiction playing close attention to some of science and fictions more peculiar characters. Often living reclusive lives sometimes the pursuit of knowledge and understanding can lead to a degradation of some more basic cognitive functions. From the historical pursuit of alchemy to nasty Nazi eugenics, we shall explore the infamous “Death Ray” of Nikola Tesla and the horrifying experiments of baby monkey torturer Harry Harlow.

If the real world of mad science is too much to handle we shall foray into the world of fiction, taking a look at Mary Shelly’s famous Dr. Frankenstein, the dual existence of Dr. Jekyll  and even a brief respite into more modern examples of the mad scientist theme in movies and fiction.