Kary Mullis

Kary Mullis (1944–2019)[2] was a Nobel prize-winning biochemist, best known for developing the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), unquestionably one of the most important tools in molecular biology.

The woo is out there
UFOlogy
Aliens did it...
... and ran away
v - t - e
Not just a river in Egypt
Denialism
♫ We're not listening ♫
v - t - e
“”Once he turned on the lights and left sacks of groceries on the floor, he lighted his path to the outhouse with a flashlight. On the way, he saw something glowing under a fir tree. Shining the flashlight on this glow, it seemed to be a raccoon with little black eyes. The raccoon spoke, saying, ‘Good evening, doctor,’ and he replied with a hello.
—You read that correctly. We are not kidding.[1]

Unfortunately, he had a number of less-founded views that he publicly expounded upon.

Where's the beef?

Given that he claimed that his LSD use had a major role in his work on PCR (James Watson, one of the discoverers of DNA, notably made similar claims with respect to his development of DNA as a concept prior to empirically confirming it),[3] it is perhaps unsurprising that he holds a number of bizarre views on subjects outside his specialty, and was noted for endorsing various and sundry conspiracy theories and pseudosciences.

Crank views
See the main article on this topic: Nobel disease

To name a few:

  • AIDS Denialism: Mullis hung around with noted AIDS denialist Peter Duesberg and believed AIDS is a conspiracy involving the government, scientists, and environmentalists.[4]
  • Alien abduction: Mullis claimed he had had an encounter with an extraterrestrial being, in which he denied the involvement of LSD. More specifically — he reported having close contact with a glowing green raccoon at his cabin in the woods of northern California around midnight one night in 1985. No, really.[1]
  • Aliensdidit: Mullis saw evidence of Urantia Book scientific foreknowledge, writing "Several scientific developments, unexpected in 1955, reported in 2005 in Science and Nature […] were somehow described rather precisely already in the Urantia Book."[5]
  • Astrology[6]
  • Climate change denialism[6]
gollark: When the next disaster rolls around, people are probably going to complain that insurance doesn't cover that either, because they didn't think of it or something.
gollark: It's also because people respond weirdly strongly to just trying to define things as other things.
gollark: They're both terrible.
gollark: So maybe the police should avoid doing things which cause people to lose respect for them constantly!
gollark: Maybe it's some philosophical thing on the purpose and effect of punishment.

See also

References
  1. Bullard, Thomas, "The Myth and Mystery of UFOs", LRB (Review) (UK) 33 (22)
  2. Kary Mullis, eccentric Berkley-educated chemistry Nobelist, dies by Peter Fimrite (Aug. 10, 2019 Updated: Aug. 10, 2019 11:02 p.m.) San Francisco Chronicle.
  3. Mullis on LSD
  4. If you want to know what the environmentalists have to do with it, you'll have to read his book, Dancing Naked in the Mind Field.
  5. Seriously.
  6. NYT: Bright Scientists, Dim Notions
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