Backdrop image for movie The Genius and the Boys

The Genius and the Boys (2009)

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)

  • TV Movie
  • Documentary

Top billed cast

  • Photo of Michael AlpersMichael AlpersHimself - Professor of Medicine - Expert on Kuru
  • Photo of Warwick AndersonWarwick AndersonProfessor in Medical Anthropology
  • Photo of Sena AnuaSena AnuaMedical Reporter - PNGIMR
  • Photo of Carleton GajdusekCarleton GajdusekHimself - Virologist - Anthropologist - Linguist - Author - etc
  • Photo of Robert GajdusekRobert GajdusekBrother
  • Photo of Robert GalloRobert GalloHimself - Director, Institute of Human Virology and Co-discoverer HIV
  • Photo of Oliver SacksOliver SacksHimself - Professor of Neurology and Author
  • Photo of Lovisa MbagintaoLovisa MbagintaoSecretary
  • Photo of Benoît B. MandelbrotBenoît B. MandelbrotHimself - Former Professor of Mathematics - Yale and Princeton (as Benoit Mandelbrot)

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