Movie

The Genius and the Boys

★ 6/10 · 2 votes 2009 1h 29m Released

TV MovieDocumentary

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)

Cast

Bosse Lindquist Narrator M Michael Alpers Himself - Professor of Med W Warwick Anderson Professor in Medical Anthr S Sena Anua Medical Reporter - PNGIMR Daniel Carleton Gajdusek Himself - Virologist - Ant R Robert Gajdusek Brother