Kary Mullis

[[Image:Kary Mullis.jpg|thumb|right|165px|If the [[Nobel disease]] had a poster boy.]]{{ufology}}{{denialism|1}}
{{cquote|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. [[Poe's_law|We are not kidding]].<ref name="LRB">Bullard, Thomas, [http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n22/jenny-diski/what-might-they-want "The Myth and Mystery of UFOs"], ''LRB'' (Review) (UK) '''33''' (22)</ref>}}
'''Kary Banks Mullis''' {{lived|1944|2019}}<ref>[https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Kary-Mullis-eccentric-Berkley-educated-chemistry-14295768.php 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''.</ref> was a [[Nobel Prize]]-winning [[biochemistry|biochemist]], best known for developing the [[genetics|polymerase chain reaction]] (PCR), unquestionably one of the most important tools in [[molecular biology]].

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]], made similar claims with respect to his development of DNA as a concept prior to empirically confirming it),<ref>Mullis on [http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/01/70015 LSD]</ref> it is perhaps unsurprising that he held a number of bizarre views on [[Ultracrepidarian|subjects outside his specialty]], and endorsed various and sundry [[Conspiracy theory|conspiracy theories]] and [[pseudoscience]]s.

==Crank views==
{{main|Nobel disease}}
{{cquote|Being a Nobel laureate is a license to be an expert in lots of things as long as you do your homework.|||Mullis<ref>[https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1993/mullis/facts/ Kary B. Mullis] ''The Nobel Prize''.</ref>}}
To name a few:
*[[HIV denial|AIDS Denialism]]: Mullis hung around with noted AIDS denialist [[Peter Duesberg]] and believed AIDS is a conspiracy involving the government and scientists.
:{{cquote|We have not been able to discover any good reasons why most of the people on earth believe that AIDS is a disease caused by a virus called HIV. There is simply no scientific evidence demonstrating that this is true."|||Mullis, in a foreward to Duesberg's book<ref>[https://archive.org/details/inventing-the-aids-virus-1996-peter-duesberg ''Inventing The AIDS Virus''] by Peter Duesberg (1996) .</ref>{{rp|xiii}}}}
*[[Alien abduction]]: Mullis claimed he had had an encounter with an [[Extraterrestrial|extraterrestrial being]], in which he denied the involvement of LSD. More specifically &mdash; 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''.<ref name="LRB"/>
*[[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''."<ref>[http://www.karymullis.com/urantia.html Seriously.]</ref>
*[[Astrology]]<ref name="nyt"/>
*[[Global Warming denialism|Climate change denialism]]<ref name="nyt">NYT: [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/28/weekinreview/28johnson.html Bright Scientists, Dim Notions]</ref>

==See also==
*[[Nobel disease]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mullis, Kary}}
[[Category:Biochemists]]
[[Category:California]]
[[Category:Crank magnetism]]
[[Category:Pseudoscience promoters]]

Categories: Biochemists, California, Crank magnetism, Pseudoscience promoters