[_yb2s]

What an uninspired and dishonest view of Mullis.

This basically presents him as an idiot that just got very lucky once - a "complete fluke," that had an unfortunately awful personality... and then goes on to try and spread the credit for his invention to other people that did trivial and straightforward parts of proving he was right after the fact.

You cannot separate his weirdness from his ability to invent PCR: his unconventional way of thinking is exactly what made both his discovery and his behaviors and personality. It is quite frankly, disgusting that our culture and scientific community cannot accept intellectual diversity and neurodiversity, and people like him that are different enough to actually bring a new perspective are systematically pushed out.

If they're accepted at all, it is the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer story- only as long and because they are useful, while constantly needing to provide massive value that others don't have to provide, just to exist in the same spaces while being neurodivergent.

I've had the opportunity to know and work with a few people that were just as "weird" as Mullis and had ideas just as good- but all were pushed out fast enough they didn't get to contribute anything and/or the credit was stolen entirely. Of two of the smartest and weirdest colleagues I've known as scientists- one is now an off the grid subsistence farmer in the middle of nowhere, the other dead by suicide. Both were capable of far more than any of the people that pushed them out.