The Genius and the Boys

Overview

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 & Crew

Bosse Lindquist

Director

Bosse Lindquist

Narrator

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Michael Alpers

Himself - Professor of Medicine - Expert on Kuru

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Warwick Anderson

Professor in Medical Anthropology

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Sena Anua

Medical Reporter - PNGIMR

Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

Himself - Virologist - Anthropologist - Linguist - Author - etc

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Robert Gajdusek

Brother

Stills