They Called Me Mad: Genius, Madness, and the Scientists Who Pushed the Outer Limits of Knowledge

‘It is frequently the tragedy of the great artist, as it is of the great scientist, that he frightens the ordinary man.’ - Loren Eiseley

From Dr. Frankenstein to Dr. Jekyll, the image of the mad scientist surrounded by glass vials, copper coils, and electrical apparatus remains a popular fixture.

In films and fiction, he’s comically misguided, tragically misunderstood, or pathologically evil.

But the origins of this stereotype can be found in the sometimes-eccentric real-life men and women who challenged orthodoxy*, made waves-and broke new scientific frontiers.

They Called Me Mad recounts the amazing true stories of Archimedes, the calculator of pi and creator of the world’s first death ray; Isaac Newton, the first great scientist and the last great alchemist; John Hunter, who used his connections with London grave robbers to become England’s greatest surgeon; Nikola Tesla, who built the precursors of robots, fluorescent lighting, and particle beam weapons before the turn of the twentieth century; Marie Curie, the mother of radioactivity; Albert Einstein, who unifies the universe and became the popular model for the mad scientist-and many more geniuses who continue to fascinate and inspire.