Disclaimer! This article contains strong language of a negative nature and references events and organization that may be upsetting.
This is a companion piece to my other article where I made a list of GSOAT. This is my GDSOAT list- the greatest dickhead-scientists of all time! This is my personal opinion and probably going to cause some offence. But to me , these are the scientists who may have done something great but also showed completely outrageous behaviour. I'm not necessarily disparaging their discoveries but only how they acted whilst making said discovery or throughout their careers. Whilst I think we do need to remember the names of the scientists who made substantial discoveries for science and the discoveries themselves are more important than the scientist behind them, there is also no excuse for dickhead behaviour. It is also important for us to be aware of the scientists who displayed less than desirable behaviour if only to prevent future researchers from acting as if that sort of behaviour is acceptable.
So kicking off our list is the infamous, structure of DNA discovery stealer, James Watson.
Anyone who has read my previous articles about Rosalind Franklin will be familiar about how James Watson behaved during the time leading up to the structure of DNA; making comments regarding Rosalind Franklin's appearance and accusing her of not being able to understand her data properly. Whilst we might be able to credit some of that to outdated (but still unacceptable) attitudes towards women in science, this is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to James Watson. From the end of the twentieth-century, James Watson seems to make a habit of making an offensive comment every few years.
Starting us off in 2000, we have a wonderful quote from him: 'Whenever you interview fat people, you feel bad, because you know you're not going to hire them'. How charming. Also in 2000, Watson makes some comments stating that dark-skinned people have stronger sex drives and according to him... 'That's why you have Latin Lovers'. Apparently, reducing the Latin community to Latin Lovers is not enough for him as he then comments about how stereotypes have a genetic basis- i.e. Jews being intelligent, Chinese being intelligent -but not creative, and Indians being servile. That's STILL not enough. Watson then asserts that 'all our social policies are based on the fact that their [black] intelligence is the same as ours [whites] whereas all the testing says not really...people who have to deal with black employees find this not true'. I think I would be banging my head on the table by this point.
Three years later, Watson make some comments about genetically engineering 'beauty'; "People say it would be terrible if we made all girls pretty. I think it would be great". Hmm. Okay. I do try to accept that comments and statements can be taken out of context but I'm not quite sure how that can be taken in any other way that would not be offensive. Doesn't look like Watson has outgrown the outdated attitudes of the 1950's.
We manage to last four years without him saying something offensive. In 2007, we then have Watson stating that John Craig Venter (founder of Celera Genomics) was trying to 'own the human genome the way Hitler wanted to own the world'. You would think calling a fellow scientist Hitler would be enough offense for one year. Nope. James Watson writes a memoir and names it 'Avoid Boring People: Lessons from a Life in Science'. In this memoir, he calls his colleagues 'dinosaurs', 'fossils', 'has-beens', 'mediocre' and 'vapid'. So not just being offensive, but being rude and resorting to juvenile name-calling. Also in 2007, he comments that Africans are less intelligent than Westerners- and this is due to genetics.
He repeats his views on genetics and race in 2019. This results in honorary titles being revoked by Cold Spring Harbour Laboratory. When hearing about this, I couldn't stop myself from muttering 'Finally!'.
Meanwhile, we also have him stating that stupidity is a disease and the 'really stupid' -i.e. the bottom 10% of all people should be 'cured'. Huh. Well, I think he's 'really stupid'- for stealing data from Dr Franklin and for his previous comments. As for the cure... well, I have two fists? Could try knocking some sense into him? Just kidding. Violence is very rarely the answer.
Next on the GDSOAT list, comes a plagiariser and a possible elephant-killer... Thomas Edison.
Edison was mostly known as an inventor and a business man. Over the course of his life, Edison filed 1,093 patents. The real problem about Edison however is he didn't actually invent everything he said he did. He takes credit for a lot of inventions and also distorts the truth somewhat. Edison was an entrepreneur and was very good at manipulating the public perception to make him seem the sole genius behind many of his so-called inventions. What was actually going on is that Thomas Edison was owning and running research and production facilities, where inventions were made.
For example, Edison did not invent the lightbulb. He did CONTRIBUTE to its improvement but the real inventor was Joseph Swan. Meanwhile, Lewis Latimer was employed by Edison and was the one who made significant improvements to the lightbulb in 1882.
Edison was also not a particularly careful and diligent man. In 1862, Edison was working as a night telegrapher for the Grand Trunk Railway. He fell asleep which almost caused the near collision of two trains. In 1866, whilst working at night shift at the Associated Press Bureau news wire, Edison was experimenting with a lead-acid battery. He spilt sulfuric acid on the floor where it leaked into his boss's desk a floor below. Now I don't think we can class this carelessness as dickhead-ness, and may make some comments about how the young can be stupid but it doesn't paint a particularly good picture of Edison.
Edison may also have been a bit of a dick to Nikola Tesla. In 1884, Tesla was working for Edison at the Edison Machine Works, an overcrowded shop that were working on electric utilities. Apparently, Thomas Edison offered Tesla a $50,000 bonus to design 'twenty-four different types of standard machines'. This turned out to be a practical joke with Edison later joking 'Tesla, you don't understand our American humor'. As a result, Tesla left his employment and started making his own inventions.
Edison is known for his involvement during the War of the Currents, a period of time revolving around what electric power transmission system should be introduced in New York City. The main players were Thomas Edison, whose company was marketing direct current lighting, and George Westinghouse, who was using the high voltage alternating current. Also involved was Tesla who had licensed his alternating current system to Westinghouse. Edison didn't handle this rival system well and started a propaganda campaign that involved publicly executing animals with alternating current. He also launched a smear campaign and spread untrue information about alternating current to discredit Tesla, Westinghouse and alternating current. He then tried to get the electric chair to be powered by alternating current to try and turn the public against it.
Edison was also known for his ruthless behaviour in business. Alongside his use of propaganda, his use of patents created monopolies and deterred competitors. His employees had to sign contracts that said Edison would receive credit for their work. He also insisted in direct control over manufacture and supply, and was known for his demanding personality that made him difficult to work for.
In popular culture, Edison is believed to have killed an elephant during this time to prove that AC was unsafe. This isn't actually true -but Edison was involved in the death of an elephant called Topsy in 1903. Poor Topsy was electrocuted to death- and her death was filmed by the Edison film company. It isn't actually known what involvement Edison had in Topsy's death with no evidence of any communication between Topsy's owners or Edison.
Edison also stated that his favourite movie was 'The Birth of a Nation'. For those who don't know, this film is incredibly racist and portrays a white supremacist hate group as a heroic force, as well as depicting black characters as unintelligent and sexually aggressive.
Coming up last but no means least for dicky behaviours comes the neurologist Sigmund Freud.
Freud may have been very influential in psychology - but he was also quite a misogynist and a Fraud (If we have any psychologists reading, can we make Fraudulent Freud a new insult?). He also turned out to be wrong in most of his theories -but I'm focusing more on behaviour in his article.
Freud once tried to treat a friend with a morphine addiction with cocaine. He judged the treatment as a success - when the friend was left addicted to both morphine and cocaine. Whilst testing effects of cocaine on reaction time and muscle strength, as well as investigating cocaine treatment for addition, he made up test subjects and successful case studies. The only person he tested on was himself. Freud also back-dated ideas he took from rivals to make it seem that he discovered it in the first place and distorted historical data. For example, Freud was conducting an analysis on Christoph Haitzmann- a 17th century case of demon possession (I know). Anyway, this case involved two written pacts with the devil - both of these pacts were historically documented. The first one did not work with Freud's theories so he denied that it existed and claimed that it was fabricated by the 'possessed man'.
We also have Freud to thank for concept of 'penis envy'. Apparently, young girls experience anxiety upon realization that they do not have a penis and this a defining moment in females developing mature sexuality. This has been widely criticized and believed to be down to Freud's attitudes towards women. Freud did think that women were inferior to men and thought that female hysteria was done to women being ahem, 'repressed...sexually'. Just a note, female hysteria was a 'disease' linked to societal expectations of women and doctors not wanting to admit that they had no idea what the diagnosis actually was. Also, epilepsy was often confused with hysteria.
We also can blame Freud for the 'Oedipus complex' where a child apparently desires the parent of the opposite sex and is jealous towards the parent of the same sex. This was criticised for instigating a cover up of sexual abuse of children. He also seemed to have come up with this theory after treating a boy who was scared of horses. He wrote a case study but as we just covered, Freud did fabricate his data so we can't have complete trust in this case study - even if there was SOME logic in it. I can't say I know much about psychology but I'm not sure how being scared of horses relates to anything to do with desiring or hating your patients.
Freud wasn't just a dick. He was a dangerous dick. His behaviour would have caused harm to so many vulnerable patients- especially women. His theories that weren't even founded on the proper scientific method- i.e. accurate methodology, may have caused damage to the concepts and development of sexuality and gender.
So here's what we have learnt today!
If you decide you want to do something great for science, but decide to go about it by stealing data or faking data, you are simply a dick.
Being a scientist who does something incredible for the advancement of science does not excuse you from the irredeemable quality of simply being a dick.
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