History Main / MadScientist

* MadScientist/VisualNovels

[[folder:Web Original]]

* Mandragora from ''Website/TheCrewOfTheCopperColoredCupids'' may be an alchemist (who dresses like it, torch-lit laboratory, alembics and all), but hereally acts more like a mad scientist, complete with bringing monsters back to life with cries of having unlocked [[EvilIsHammy the secret! of life! ''itself!'']]. Pythe jokingly refers to Mandragora as "the Governor's pet mad scientist".

* Played for laughs in ''WesternAnimation/PAWPatrolTheMightyMovie''. Victoria is an obvious mad scientist, but she keeps denying the fact. Even ''Humdinger'', the villain from the [[Series/PAWPatrol main series]] calls her out on it. She finally admits it, as put by Liberty, by the end of the movie.

An [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder increasingly common take]] on this trope is that Mad Science is a [[CursedWithAwesome dangerous superpower]] or even a ''[[ChronicVillainy mental disorder]]'', either hereditary in which case the afflicted may come from a [[InTheBlood long line]] of mad scientists, or transmissible through [[MemeticMutation contagious ideas]] or [[GoMadFromTheRevelation experiences]].

At times scientists will show signs of madness, but remain at least loosely allied with the heroes. In this case they may be [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} somewhat demented]] [[TheSmartGuy smart guys]], ''extremely'' {{Eccentric Mentor}}s, {{Conspiracy Theorist}}s, [[TheProfessor Professors]], {{Playful Hacker}}s, {{Psycho Sidekick}}s, {{Innocent Prodig|y}}ies, {{Genius Ditz}}es or even {{Demolitions Expert}}s. [[AntiHero These 'tamed']] [[ChaoticGood mad scientists]] [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass are emphatically not 'safer' than their diabolical brethren]]. If otherwise-(mostly) sane scientists start behaving crazily while they're in the throes of creativity, they're visiting TheMadnessPlace.

* The WebOriginal/{{Metaverse}} ...hoo boy...

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order. Thanks!

The ScienceHero was once a staple of adventure fiction, overcoming the EvilSorcerer and awing the superstitious natives with the power of Science! But somewhere between the invention of the Gatling gun and the atomic bomb, fiction-creators [[DeconstructedTrope deconstructed the archetype]] to create a new kind of villain: a villain who believes that the conventional scientific community are fools! Needlessly constrained by their petty "morals" and their self-limiting "logic"!

* ''WesternAnimation/DespicableMe'': Dr. Nefario; Gru does some work too, though.

** Dr. Insano. [[MultipleChoicePast His background is unknown]], and he [[TakeOverTheWorld plans to take over the world]] '''[[CatchPhrase WITH SCIENCE!!!]]''' He's [[WebVideo/AtopTheFourthWall Linkara's]] archenemy, and killed Spoony at one point. He also won the 2008 presidential election ''[[VillainWithGoodPublicity without making any attempt to hide his identity]]''. [[GadgeteerGenius And he made an Atari Jaguar CD work long enough for Spoony to play through the game.]]

* WebOriginal/FortniteLoreSociety: The Mad FN Scientist named himself after this trope.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
[[AC:''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}''/''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'']]
* ''Fanfic/AdventuresOfTheMorningStar'': Singed, like in canon ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'' and ''WesternAnimation/{{Arcane}}'', is a deranged man fueled by his twisted scientific curiosity. He turns people and rats into strange Shimmer monsters that tear apart whoever he or his employer, Silco, order them to.

[[AC:''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'']]
* In the ''Series/{{Arrowverse}}'' fanfic ''[[Fanfic/ToHellAndBackArrowverse To Hell and Back]]'': It's implied Barry dabbled in this while he was a member of the League of Assassins.

[[AC:Crossover]]
%%* ''Fanfic/TheButcherBird'' (''Manga/OnePiece'' & ''Manga/TokyoGhoul''): This is Grigori Vinci's role as Captain of the [[VillainProtagonist Nightmare Pirates]].
* ''Fanfic/CaptainsCrash'' (''WesternAnimation/Ducktales1987'' & ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''): Gyro Gearloose, as per his canon. Launchpad was stranded in Equestria by one of his inventions going wrong.
* ''Fanfic/ChildOfTheStorm'': Has the usual example of Doctor Arnim Zola, an AI in (usually) an LMD version of his original body, which as the Head of HYDRA, Lucius Malfoy, observes, makes him look harmless, even contemptible. As Lucius inwardly notes, this is also very much a mistaken impression; Zola's brilliant enough to perfect Extremis, turning it from its MCU variant (superhuman abilities and HealingFactor in exchange for literally explosive volatility) to its 616 variant (able to grant any superpower within ill-defined power limits), and use Jane Foster's research to build a "Nexus Engine" (giant teleporter) for HYDRA's massive vibranium hulled Helicarrier, the ''Dreadnought'' -- which he can control, all by himself.
** And he learned from [[spoiler:Sinister]], who is demonstrated to have technology that can hide him from Heimdall, teleport through/manipulate dimensions, to have mastered human cloning, and even hide from Doctor Strange -- though that's indicated to be through someone else's assistance.
** Doctor [[spoiler:Reynolds]] in the Smallville arc of the sequel, who approaches this from an alchemists perspective, seeking (and succeeding) in combining science and magic to create what would essentially be distilled magic, which could be taken in liquid form (since magic and life-force are pretty much the same thing, it would boost the drinker's health and immune system). Unfortunately, he starts using BlackMagic and darker SympatheticMagic to get it [[spoiler:by draining Clark, though his journal all but states that Clark isn't the first, and several test subjects died]]. Since EvilIsNotAToy, this results in severe SanitySlippage and an unusual case of ThisIsYourBrainOnEvil (he ''knows'' he's gone zooming over the MoralEventHorizon, he just doesn't ''care'').
* ''Fanfic/GameOfTouhou'' (''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' & ''VideoGame/TouhouProject''): Eirin, [[spoiler:later, Hisataka Nou]], has developed a serum that turns humans into war beasts when searching for a potion of immortality.
* ''Fanfic/MythosEffect'' (''TabletopGame/CthulhuTech'' & ''Franchise/MassEffect''): Features Herbert West (of ''Film/ReAnimator'' fame) employed by the [[TabletopGame/CthulhuTech New Earth Federation]] and actively encouraged in his obscene work. In his one scene so far, he's dissecting a [[Franchise/MassEffect Turian]] corpse and describing every way he can improve biological weapons to use against them, [[DissonantSerenity all with a smile on his face]].

[[AC:''Franchise/FinalFantasy'']]
* ''Fanfic/SeventhEndmostVision'' has Dr. [[AdaptationalVillainy Lucrecia]] [[BigBad Valentine]], who is a ''sedate'' version of this trope, one oriented not around wild scientific discoveries, but around efficiency. A glimpse of her laboratories in Shinra HQ reveal the fundamental difference between her and her canon counterpart, Dr. Hojo; her laboratories actually give the [[BenevolentBoss best pay and best hours]] in Shinra, and it's all focused on incremental improvements [[PragmaticVillainy which give a guaranteed return.]] Her calmness in this regard seems to have paid off for her; [[spoiler:she's become the fic's equivalent of ''Weiss the Immaculate'', all through her own efforts, making her tremendously dangerous.]]

[[AC:FusionFic]]
* ''Fanfic/FalloutEquestria'' (''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' & ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''): Twilight also became an amoral Mad Scientist, torturing and killing countless zebra war prisoners and pony political dissidents and subjecting Discord to a FateWorseThanDeath in an attempt to create a serum that would transform normal ponies into [[PhysicalGod alicorns]]. She [[LaserGuidedKarma pays for her misdeeds]] when her serum manages to [[spoiler:mutate Trixie into an EldritchAbomination that promptly [[CannibalismSuperpower devours her]] and [[TheAssimilator absorbs her mind]].]]

[[AC:''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'' / ''Franchise/KingKong'' / Franchise/MonsterVerse]]
* ''Fanfic/AbraxasHrodvitnon'': Alan Jonah and his aptly-named Basement Club cross into this territory with their [[PlayingWithSyringes experimentation]] on San's old head in the bowels of their ElaborateUndergroundBase[='s=] lower-levels, even [[spoiler:performing experiments [[TestedOnHumans on humans]]]]. Meanwhile, Mariko is a ReluctantMadScientist who doesn't enjoy working for Jonah's paramilitary, and she certainly doesn't enjoy being forced to oversee the barbaric experiments being conducted on [[TwoBeingsOneBody San and Vivienne Graham]].

[[AC:''Franchise/HarryPotter'']]
* ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7093738/8/Brutal-Harry Brutal Harry]]'': Hermione's uncle George Granger's reaction to being told that magic exists is mad laughter followed by shouting "THERE WILL BE! SO MUCH '''SCIENCE'''!"
* In ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13163926/14/False-Pretences False Pretences]]'' Priscilla Doge makes some aquatic-themed physical modifications to a seventh-year student and keeps him in an aquarium tank in her trunk.
-->'''Priscilla:''' Transfiguration as a subject has been stagnant for nearly two hundred years. My colleagues have grown complacent and refuse to push the boundaries because of self-imposed restrictions, rules, ethics concerns. I've been doing something all of them are too scared to be doing, and my research will revolutionise human Transfiguration as we know it!

[[AC:''WesternAnimation/InvaderZim'']]
* ''Fanfic/BecomingATrueInvader'': In addition to Zim, there's his old Vortian colleague Crax, [[EveryoneHasStandards who even he thinks]] is crazy.
* ''Fanfic/ForTheGloryOfIrk'' has Professor Membrane (as per [[WesternAnimation/InvaderZim canon]]) and his new wife Moira. From gifting their son hypercubes that be used for both storage and combat, to [[AbnormalAmmo weaponizing animals as ammunition for cannons]], they will never let morality or common sense stop them from doing things ForScience.

[[AC:''Franchise/MyLittlePony'']]
* It's ''very'' common to portray Twilight as a completely bonkers Mad Scientist in fan works, though whether or not she is good or evil varies wildly: [[http://steamquestria.tumblr.com/ Steamquestria's]] Twilight embodies every single mad scientist quirk there is but is still quite nice, loving, and caring ([[NoodleIncident except for one time she "accidentally" made Spike 50ft tall and "accidentally" programmed him to destroy the city]]), while [[WebAnimation/PonyDotMov PONY.MOV's]] Twilight is only ''slightly'' less evil than Discord and Wolflor.
* Blog/AskBrainyTwilight. In an odd play on this trope, she struggled with admitting she was one of these until she made a sapient flaming chainsword for a friend.
* Similarly, [[http://askresearchertwilight.tumblr.com/tagged/ResearcherTwilight/chrono Ask Researcher Twilight]], although it's more Grimdark sprinkled with BlackComedy. Twilight has gone completely insane, and is hiding from the government after attepting to [[TheyWouldCutYouUp vivisect]] Celestia.
* ''Fanfic/EquestriaAHistoryRevealed'': King Sombra was said to have initially been a normal king, with a love of scholarly pursuits. When he stumbles upon dark magic, he still takes a very scholarly, scientific approach, dutifully recording his observations, before he starts to lose his mind. Even when he performs his dark magic experiments, according to the questionable LemonyNarrator, he still felt the need to publish the results of his evil experiments with the rest of the world as a continuation of his science-loving side, and possibly his need for peer-review.
* ''[[https://www.fimfiction.net/story/489758/great-minds-think-alike Great Minds Think Alike]]'': Two of the future villains who time-travelled to the past to defeat Twilight on her coronation day are mad scientists of different sorts. Voyager is an insane cyborg {{trans|human}}equine who considers her unnatural melding of flesh and machine to be the next step of equine evolution, intends to force it on Equestria over any objections to her plans, and has an extremely self-important personality and tendency towards gloating and angry ranting. Diachrony is a studiously mundane social scientist, whose plan is to assassinate Twilight and throw society into chaos in order to have interesting social trends and upheavals to study.
-->''"You're a mad... sociologist?" she asked.\\
A few guards snickered and Diachrony bristled. "As I've said before, Milady," he said testily, "my science may involve studying ponies and critical reasoning with fuzzy data rather than brute-forcing equations and banging atoms together, but that hardly means I'm not a legitimate mad scientist!"''
* ''Fanfic/TheMareWhoOnceLivedOnTheMoon'': Pinkie Pie gets this. While titled [[UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla 'TESLA']] for some FunWithAcronyms, she does have a worrying enthusiasm for the then-new discoveries of atomic science. And is entirely insane.
** Twilight ''again'' ends up in this territory too. Shining Armour has to remind her that some of her plans, innocent to begin with, don't need much to turn into devastating weapons. "You don't mean to but, Twilight, there's stuff here that could change the world, and for a lot of ponies and horses and zebras it wouldn't be for the better."
%%* ''Fanfic/RiseOfEmpressMidnight'': Twilight's great uncle, Boris Sparkle, could qualify for this, [[spoiler:considering he made the Alicorn Amulet]].%%Making one powerful item doesn't in itself qualify for the trope.
* In ''Fanfic/TealovesSteamyAdventure'', Baron Zeppeli is studying eye colors, of all things. He kidnaps Tealove so he can forcibly change her color. His lab assistants are a pair of unicorns, Cherry Pie and Waterfire, who constantly bicker with each other.

[[AC:''Anime/ScienceNinjaTeamGatchaman'']]
* ''[[http://archiveofourown.org/works/11447304 Mad Scientists Anonymous]]'' plays with the idea that Dr Nambu along with all the iterations from ''Anime/BattleOfThePlanets'', ''Anime/GForceGuardiansOfSpace'', ''Anime/EagleRiders" and the OAV version were all "as mad as a box of frogs," and sent them to a meeting of the eponymous support group. It goes about as well as you might expect.

[[AC:''Franchise/StarWars'']]
* ''[[https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13545968/1/Wilhuff-Tarkin-Hero-of-the-Rebellion Wilhuff Tarkin, Hero of the Rebellion]]'' has a few examples:
** Raith Sienar is portrayed as an extremely intelligence but morally challenged GadgeteerGenius, whose main issue with the Imperial Navy deciding to put in mass production the [[MookMobile TIE Fighter]] as it is when it was simply [[FlawedPrototype a stripped down and somewhat cramped prototype]] supposed to simply demonstrate the SIE-TIE's engine potential isn't that it will cost numerous pilot lives, but that it would make him appear a hack fighter designer. And when he finds out one of his ideas will be developed in the Death Star, [[DoWrongRight he doesn't really appreciate but considers that the main engineer is competent a boon]]. The narration points out that Sienar's loose morals (as long as they don't mess with common sense) are why he's still friends with [[TheSociopath Wilhuff Tarkin]].
** The head designers of the Death Star are this, in their own ways:
*** Orson Krennic (project director and main engineer) doesn't really care of the destruction it will cause, only to have his name remembered in history for building the Death Star.
*** Galen Erso was forced in... And [[PapaWolf sabotaged the station so it's vulnerable to a fighter attack, knowing that almost two million people will die, to protect his daughter]] and [[CrusadingWidow avenge his wife]]. He's also quite giddy when Qwi Xux' team speeds up his job by years, and when Tarkin admits his true allegiances and declares that less than two million dead are a small revenge for being separated by their child he admits they were ''collateral damage'' to his real goals (Krennic and Tarkin himself).
*** While in Legends she was naive enough to not know the real use of her inventions, here Qwi Xux knows [[EarthShatteringKaboom what the Death Star is going to be used for]]... And still actively collaborates.
*** As of this writing Umak Leth and Bevel Lemelisk haven't received characterization yet, but they too don't care about.




[[AC:Dormant/Dead/Unsorted]]
* ''[[http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/transformers-fan-fiction/828948-transformers-meta.html Transformers Meta]]'': Wheeljack reprises his traditional role as this. Appropriately, he has pulled [[BigDamnHero some pretty crazy stunts]], and has invented [[StuffBlowingUp some pretty implausible things]], like [[spoiler:grenades on a sword]].
* ''Fanfic/DungeonKeeperAmi:'' Invoked. Ami's favorite running gag is dressing up in a white lab coat, flipping a large power switch and laughing maniacally; all in good fun.
* ''Fanfic/RiseOfTheChosen:'' In this ''VideoGame/MegaManZX'' fanfic, the OC Lateral is the Guardians' resident scientist. 99-percent nutter and 1-percent rational, the people who can put up with her eccentric and scatterbrained personality can be counted on one hand.
* Twilight Sparkle in ''Fanfic/PagesOfHarmony'' is very much this, having an entire multi-roomed laboratory to [[spoiler:extract the genetic essence of the Elements of Harmony from her friends]].
* [[IHaveManyNames Virgo Zodiarts/Tachibana/Kunieru Emoto]] in ''FanFic/{{Horseshoes and Hand Grenades}}'' who has not only been treating Sonada and Kijima with Cosmic Energy injections so that they can bring back their lost Horoscopes powers, he also [[spoiler:transformed Ryusei into a brainwashed cyborg]] for reasons still not yet explained.
* In ''[[http://www.fanfiction.net/s/9007910/2/Altered-Histories Altered Histories]]'' Harry sees a goblin healer called [[{{MeaningfulName}} Fangcutter]] who wears a bloodstained lab coat and possesses some rather dubious instruments, cuts Harry's skull open to remove the scar [[SoulJar Horcrux]] ''while he's conscious'' and performs unspecified "experiments" after Harry's ''finally'' unconscious due to another medical procedure.
* Fanfic/TheCadanceverse version of Carrot Top is a comedic mad scientist, always seeking new improvements in farming and food development, usually with hilarious results when things go wrong.
* Fanfic/{{Eugenesis}} explicitly labels the Guardian droids, each of which has an annoying tendency to be ludicrously overpowered and liable to turn on its creators on a dime, as the creations of Wheeljack.
* ''Fanfic/TheReactsverse'':
** ''Fanfic/LucinaReacts'': Miriel, in contrast to canon. Among the things she's invented for Ylisse are the ''steam engine'', a device that [[ClothingDamage destroys the clothes]] [[NakedPeopleAreFunny of everyone nearby]], and a dream-walking device.
** ''Fanfic/WeissReacts'': Professor Faust tinkers with dark magic and [[EldritchAbomination eldritch monsters]] for... whatever she actually plans on using them on.
* In ''Fanfic/{{Coveralls}}'', [[Series/TheXFiles Scully]] is a lot more unhinged than in canon, owning a "knife office", enthusing about lethal poison, and killing a man unprovoked. She also wants to get back to her "scientific achievements".
* ''Fanfic/HarryAndTheShipgirls'' has Abyssal Research Princess. [[BadBoss Experiments on her own subjects]], has canonically grafted Abyssal parts onto humans, and [[spoiler:planted multiple [[BodyBackupDrive flesh tumors]] in the members of her own fleet, making it rather difficult to kill her.]] Being an {{Expy}} of Josef Mengele from the Real Live section, she plays this trope dead seriously.
** That being said, not all of her experiments have worked. She once tried creating Abyssal clones of shipgirls. [[GoneHorriblyRight They were such good clones that they turned on her.]]
* ''Fanfic/AFlowersTouch'': One chapter covers [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII Aerith's]] life in the labs under Hojo's care in all its horrific, gory detail.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Films -- Live-Action]]
[[/folder]]

* Most of the traditional image of the Mad Scientist probably derives from various adaptations of Creator/MaryShelley's ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', especially [[Film/{{Frankenstein 1931}} the 1931 movie]]: "It's alive! IT'S ALIVE!" The original book is wildly different -- see MadScientist/{{Literature}}.
* The 1931 ''Frankenstein'' and other horror films of the time also drew heavily for their portrayals of mad scientists on Rotwang in Fritz Lang's classic 1927 SF film ''Film/{{Metropolis}}''. Rotwang, in turn, draws on the Mad Scientist depictions of Frankenstein in nineteenth-century stage melodrama. It's worth pointing out that Rotwang from ''Film/{{Metropolis}}'' is not only the earlier Trope Maker, but was himself largely inspired by the popularity of the wild-haired, heavily accented Einstein and other "eccentric German physicists" at the time who were upending people's notions of the limits of science in an unsettling manner. They helped inspire the image of the ReluctantMadScientist who is obsessed with his research and doesn't really expect it to be misused.
%%* ''Film/AlienResurrection'': Dr. Mason Wren.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerDonuts'': John's Uncle Luther is the one [[UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom who's animation serum lead to the events of the movie]]. He's introduced testing it on a dead rat, which then comes to life and attacks him, giving him a bite wound on his shoulder.
* ''Film/AttackOfTheKillerTomatoes'': Dr. Putrid T. Gangrene qualifies, what with his diabolical plans to conquer the world with giant killer tomatoes, tomatoes turned into people, people turned into tomatoes, etc., etc. Don't call him mad, though. HE IS NOT MAD. A little angry sometimes, but not mad!
* In ''Film/AvengersAgeOfUltron'', Tony Stark tells Bruce Banner that they need to own up to the fact that they both are mad scientists as his justification for [[spoiler:going through with creating the Vision]].
* The ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' trilogy has Emmett L. Brown, who is a bit more cuddly than your average Mad Scientist. Then again, this is the man who stole weapons grade plutonium from Libyan terrorists and promised to build them a nuke ([[ILied he lied]]).
-->'''Dr. Brown:''' They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and in turn gave them a shoddy bomb-casing full of used pinball machine parts!
** If that's not enough, he has a good deal of inventions in his garage lab, many of which don't work the way he wanted to. That said, he still has some successful ones, such as a fridge made from huge parts in 1885 Hill Valley or his famous [[CoolCar DeLorean time machine]] which used his swindled plutonium. He also proves to be just as zany when upgrading his TimeMachine, giving it a new, more efficient energy converter/reactor and giving it [[FlyingCar flying circuits]] in 2015. He even built ''another time machine out of a [[CoolTrain steam locomotive]]!''
* ''Film/{{Barbarella}}'': BigBad Durand Durand is a brilliant scientist who prefers using his intellect to make powerful weapons and creative torture and execution devices, and he plans to use the former to take over the universe (he reveals this complete with an EvilLaugh).
* In ''Film/BatmanVSupermanDawnOfJustice'', Comicbook/LexLuthor is both a gifted scientist and extremely mad, going so far as to use the knowledge and resources of a Kryptonian ship downed during [[Film/ManOfSteel General Zod's attack on Metropolis]] and the corpse of [[spoiler:Zod himself]] to do a Dr. Frankenstein and create Doomsday, an almost unstoppable killing machine.
* In ''Film/{{Bats}}'', it is revealed that Dr. [=McCabe=] created the bats with the specific intention of killing people (rather that is being an accident as he originally claimed). He is killed attempting to communicate with them.
* ''Film/BlackSheep2007'': Though Astrid Rush is ostensibly trying to create genetically enhanced sheep, she's rather happy to find an instance of a man turning into a weresheep. And there was [[NoodleIncident that thing about leeches.]]
* ''Film/BrideOfTheMonster'' has Professor Doctor Eric Vornoff who completely lives this trope. He has a MadScientistLaboratory, an [[TheIgor Igor]], [[HerrDoktor an eastern European accent]], he wants to prove [[TheyCalledMeMad people who called him mad]] wrong, he has an EvilLaugh and his plan is to [[NuclearMutant create a race of atomic supermen]] [[TakeOverTheWorld to conquer the world]]. He's played by Creator/BelaLugosi after all [[ChewingTheScenery who chews the scenery a lot]].
* ''Film/TheCabinetOfDrCaligari'': Dr. Caligari is a little bit of this and a little bit of CircusOfFear.
* ''Film/TheCarsThatAteParis'': The FrontierDoctor enjoys lobotomising his patients, and Victorian HerrDoktor Dobbin collects and measures the skulls of criminals like Film/MadDogMorgan.
%%* ''Film/TheCityOfLostChildren'': Krank certainly counts. And he appears to be [[spoiler:the creation of another mad scientist]].
* ''Film/TheClonesOfBruceLee'': Dr. Nai may have been influenced by Thomas Edison; he's a mad scientist who actually has other people do all the inventing for him, such as a vegetation-destroyer, while he wears a business suit and yells at his scientists to invent faster.
* ''Film/TheCreeps'': Dr. Winston Berber stole the manuscripts of four classic monsters to place in his device, the "Archetype Inducer", which has the power to bring fictional characters to life in the real world. His plan is to make an army of monsters who will do his bidding.
* ''Film/TheDamBusters'': [[HistoricalDomainCharacter Barnes Wallis]] is a {{Downplayed}} Mad Scientist who invents the bouncing bomb and perfects its design to enable an attack on major German dams as part of Operation Chastise.
* ''Film/DayOfTheDead1985''. Dr. Matthew Logan, nicknamed "Frankenstein" by the soldiers. He is so obsessed with his work he fails to consider how the soldiers will react to him cutting up their deceased comrades for his experiments.
%%* ''Film/DoctorStrangelove'': The title character.
* In ''Film/DraculaVsFrankenstein'', [[EvilCripple wheelchair-bound]] mad scientist Dr. Durea, the last descendant of the original Dr. Frankenstein, takes to murdering young girls for experimentation in hopes of perfecting a blood serum of his own creation with help from his mute, simple-minded assistant Groton. Durea hopes the serum will heal his crippled legs and cure Groton of his condition.
* ''Film/EdwardScissorhands'': Creator/VincentPrice might just be the kindliest Mad Scientist ever. His second-most-impressive creation (after Edward) is a giant cookie-making machine. And he creates Edward with the expressed desire to see if it's possible to make an artificial being with human love. And then amuses both of them with silly poetry later. Aw!
* ''Film/TheEroticRitesOfFrankenstein'': Victor Frankenstein (of course), and his nemesis Cagliostro, who is both a Mad Scientist and an EvilSorcerer. Frankenstein declares that Cagliostro is his equal in the understanding of science.
* ''Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Sex * But Were Afraid to Ask'' has a skit featuring Dr. Bernardo, a mad sex analyst whose experiments include measuring premature ejaculation on a hippopotamus and building a 400-foot diaphragm. ("Contraception for the entire nation at once!") The segment ends with Allen's character battling one of the doctor's creations -- a gigantic, disembodied human breast.
* ''Film/ExMachina'': Nathan is a reclusive and secretive creator of artificial people, who considers himself a god and thinks nothing of destroying them in his sick experiments.
* ''Film/TheFly1986'': Seth Brundle, but he doesn't start out that way. Prior to his fateful teleportation (an impulsive choice he makes while he's drunk) he's a subversion. He's '''driven''', doesn't have great social skills, and is -- well -- working on teleportation, but he is a sane man working for the greater good with a clear ethical code. Post-teleportation, a gradual SplitPersonalityTakeover (plus, at least before he learns what's happening to him, a DrunkWithPower feeling) turns him into a straight version of the trope, albeit a sympathetic one -- he is desperate to hold back the ruthless, remorseless insect nature that now dwells in him, but he'll use any means necessary to do so.
* ''Film/ForbiddenPlanet''. Lampshaded by Dr Morbius after demonstrating that JustForFun/RobbyTheRobot is ThreeLawsCompliant, saying that even if he was the proverbial mad scientist of the "tape thrillers", he could not possibly harm anyone with the technology he has. Turns out Morbius has other attributes of a mad scientist like hubris, lack of self-awareness, and a failure to think things through. And of course a [[MadScientistsBeautifulDaughter beautiful daughter]].
* In ''Film/Frankenstein1970'', Victor von Frankenstein is obsessed with continuing his ancestor's work. He plans to revivify the original FrankensteinMonster, but give it his own face, so the Frankenstein line may continue.
* ''Film/FrankensteinsCastleOfFreaks'': His name is Count Frankenstein and he is attempting to revivify the dead. Take a wild guess.
* In ''Film/FrankensteinIsland'', Sheila Frankenstein, her husband Dr. Van Helsing, and Dr. Frankenstein all count. The entire island is set up to allow Dr. Frankenstein to continue his blasphemous work from beyond the grave by using Van Helsing as a psychic conduit.
* In ''Film/TheFreakmaker'', Professor Nolter is obsessed with creating a race of [[PlantPerson human/plant hybrids]] and is kidnapping and experimenting on unwilling victims as of way of achieving this.
%%* ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'': The Ghostbusters, especially Egon.
* ''Film/Ghostbusters2016'': Jillian Holtzmann, the one who builds all their gadgets, has no regard for safety procedures, habitually makes new weapons with no discernible purpose (what do they need a laser bear-trap that sends ghosts to Michigan for?), and when Patty shows up with a hearse is excited at the possibility of there being a dead body in the back ("do you know how many uses that could have?") and later paints said hearse white and bolts a siren and a nuclear reactor to the top. [[spoiler:While Rowan uses the other Ghostbusters' research to make devices that summon ghosts in an attempt to get revenge at the world.]]
%%* ''Film/GIJoeTheRiseOfCobra'': The Doctor, a.k.a. [[spoiler:Rex Lewis]] a.k.a. [[spoiler:Cobra Commander]] takes the role of the mad scientist.
* ''Franchise/{{Godzilla}}'':
** ''Film/{{Gojira}}'' has Dr. Daisuke Serizawa, who invents the Oxygen Destroyer that ultimately kills Godzilla. However, he isn't evil; he's more of a ReluctantMadScientist.
** ''Film/GodzillaVsBiollante'': Dr. Shiragam's experimental fusion of [[MixAndMatchCritters Godzilla's DNA, Rose DNA, and the DNA of his deceased daughter]] ends up causing the creation of Biollante. He's not evil either, but he's certainly mad with grief over the loss of his daughter.
** ''Film/TerrorOfMechagodzilla'' has Dr. Mafune, who not only turns his own daughter into a cyborg but he also invents a device that allows him to control the sea monster Titanosaurus.
* ''Film/Gremlins2TheNewBatch'': Doctor [[PunnyName Catheter]], played to the hilt by Creator/ChristopherLee. Interestingly he subverts it later on when he rejects his experiments as immoral, and vows that he will not commit cruel genetic experiments on animals again.
* Doctor Moreau, probably one of the best well-known Mad Scientists in pop culture, appears in several films, most notably ''Film/IslandOfLostSouls'' (1932) played by Creator/CharlesLaughton, in ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1977'' played by Creator/BurtLancaster and ''Film/TheIslandOfDrMoreau1996'' played by Creator/MarlonBrando. In all films is a crazy scientist trying to turn animals into humans.
* ''Film/{{Help}}'': Professor Foot. Lampshaded by John when he says "This is absurd! You're nothing but a trite, hackneyed mad scientist!"
* Film/JamesBond occasionally runs into some of these, including in his movie debut. He also works with one, if you consider his GadgeteerGenius and weapons man Q to be as "mad", given his role involves designing and constructing lethal assassination weapons disguised as ordinary items.
** The villain of the very first official Bond movie is the titular mad scientist ''Film/DrNo'', half-German half-Chinese genius in Nuclear Physics and an agent of the NebulousEvilOrganization known as S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Bond investigates him after he orders the murder of a fellow British agent who was snooping into his business- toppling American missiles to prove the power of his organization, a task assigned to him due to his unique understanding of nuclear radiation (his weapon of choice in this mission). Bonus points for his more personal motive of wanting revenge on America AND Russia for rejecting him when he offered his services, as well as his experiments accidentally costing him [[EvilCripple the use of both hands]], forcing him to rely on [[ArtificialLimbs metal hands of his own design]].
** Mr. Ling, the EvilGenius and Red Chinese agent working with ''Film/{{Goldfinger}}, is a specialist in nuclear fusion and in charge of helping the evil eponymous businessman detonate a nuclear weapon in Fort Knox in an attempt to cripple the American economy and increase the value of his gold supply.
** ''Film/AViewToAKill'': HerrDoktor [[NaziGrandpa Carl Mortner]] is a Mengele-sque eugenicist who conducted a SuperBreedingProgram in an effort to create the "ideal" soldier for the Nazis. While most experiments failed, the few DesignerBabies that survived became highly intelligent — but also [[TheSociopath sociopathic]] due to the {{Psycho Serum}}s used. [[BigBad Max Zorin]] and [[TheDragon May Day]] are the two only suxh surviving "experiment results".
** Dr. Valdo Obruchev in ''Film/NoTimeToDie''. He conceived Heracles, a devastating mix of {{Nanomachines}} and ThePlague that spreads via {{touch|of death}} and can be programmed to target specific people based on genetics. He gladly accepts working for Lyutsifer Safin and even suggests to use it to wipe out entire ethniticities. [[DeathByRacism Saying the latter out loud ends up being his last mistake]].
* ''Film/JesseJamesMeetsFrankensteinsDaughter'' has Maria Frankenstein, who experiments on the inhabitants of a Mexican village in an effort to recreate her grandfather's BrainTransplant technique. Her brother Rudolph has the same skills, but is plagued by a pesky conscience.
* ''Film/JurassicWorld'': Dr Wu angrily denies the trope when the ''Indominus rex'' appears to have GoneHorriblyWrong [[spoiler:but we discover there's plenty of justification for it in his case, as he was secretly creating a dinosaur to demonstrate the potential of weaponised hybrids.]]
* ''Film/KissMeQuick'' has Dr. Breedlove who is creating a race of {{Sexbot}}s and other sex related mad science in his MadScientistLaboratory.
* Dr. Laurience in ''Film/TheManWhoChangedHisMind''. Already obsessed with the idea of transferring souls between bodies, he descends into full insanity when the scientific community rejects his theories and literally laughs him out of the room.
* ''Film/TheManWithTwoBrains'': Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr eventually becomes one of these -- or, rather, a parody of one:
-->'''German Detective:''' You're playing God!\\
'''Michael:''' ''Somebody's'' got to!
* ''Film/TheMosquitoCoast'' starring Creator/HarrisonFord is a non-Science Fiction example. Ford plays an engineer who specializes in refrigeration technology; only problem is, most people already have fridges and air conditioners. So he moves his whole family out to the jungle in the middle of nowhere and builds a giant refrigeration machine just so his talents will be better appreciated. This isn't enough to satisfy his budding megalomania, so he goes on a quest to show a block of ice to some reclusive tribals who have never seen it, presumably so everyone would ooh an ahh over it and him.
* ''Film/MysteryMen'': Dr. Heller is on the side of justice, but definitely not right in the head. Lampshaded when the Bowler criticizes their decision to call on him for help:
-->'''The Bowler:''' See, this is why a mad scientist is generally not preferable to a garden-variety ''regular'' scientist.
* In ''Film/TheNeanderthalMan'', an anthropologist creates [[DevolutionDevice a serum that can temporarily reverse a million years of evolution]] in order to prove his theory that Neanderthals were smarter than humans. When he tests the serum on himself, he turns into a murderous ape-man.
* ''Film/{{Nightwish|1989}}'': The professor eventually takes his students captive to force them to cooperate with his dangerous experiments to investigate ghost activity. He even fatally stabs his assistant in the gut when he threatens to expose what the professor is doing.
* ''Film/LaPielQueHabito'': Dr. Robert is a plastic surgeon who lost his wife in a automobile fire and seeks solace in recreating her appearance on an unwilling victim.
* ''Film/ThePrestige'' gives you two for one. Nikola Tesla (played by Music/DavidBowie) builds a matter duplicator, which one of the two main protagonists (antagonists?) uses to perform an "impossible" magic trick. The scientist is mad (see ''Real Life'' below) and so is the magician who uses his device.
* ''Film/ThePrincessBride'': While Count Rugen isn't technically a scientist in the modern sense, he does treat torture as a science, having built a complex machine for "sucking the life" from his victims x number of years at a time. After he sucks a year of life out of Wesley he even asks Wesley how it felt, for the sake of his "research".
-->'''Rugen''' ''(pen poised over paper):'' And remember: this is for posterity, so... be honest.
* ''Film/ReAnimator'': Dr. Herbert West is driven Faustially to perfect his corpse-resurrecting Re-Agent formula.
* ''Film/TheReturnOfSwampThing'': Dr. Rochelle is more interested in causing mutations than researching the key to eternal life like his boss would want him to.
* ''Film/TheRockyHorrorPictureShow'': Dr. Frank N. Furter, who is also a VillainousCrossdresser. (Although it's hinted that Furter's "butler" Riff Raff is the one who did most of the actual Mad-Sciencing, with Furter characteristically stealing the credit.)
* In ''Film/ScannersIITheNewOrder'', Dr. Morse uses his neurological research institute to enslave psychics with his dangerous drugs and use them for Commander Forrester's megalomaniac purposes.
* ''Film/{{Sharkenstein}}'': Klaus is a former Nazi scientist who's continued to work on a project from UsefulNotes/WorldWarII that involved the brain and heart of FrankensteinsMonster. To that end, he made an ArtificialZombie shark out of the body parts of several different sharks, and planned to put the brain and heart in it. His ultimate end goal was to create an army of Frankensharks to sic upon the world.
* ''Film/SpidersIIBreedingGround'': A mad geneticist named Dr. Grbac is having people kidnapped by the corrupt crew of a cargo transport ship to implant them with GiantSpider eggs. [[spoiler:He gets HoistByHisOwnPetard.]]
* ''Film/TheSpiderwickChronicles'' has Arthur Spiderwick.
%%* ''Film/UnderSiege2DarkTerritory'': Travis Dane, the BigBad, is this.
* ''Film/WonderWoman2017'': Dr. Poison has dedicated her life to creating new painful and horrific chemical weapons, at least one of which she tested on herself. She is downright giddy when observing people dying under the effects of her creations.
* ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'': In ''Film/XMenDaysOfFuturePast'', Bolivar Trask’s main scientific objective seems to be genocide-via-robot, though he's rather subdued for the archetype.
%%** ''Film/XMenFirstClass'': Sebastian Shaw as Klaus Schmidt.

[[folder:Tabletop Games]]
* ''TabletopGame/BattleTech'': The Society is a secret group of disgruntled Clan scientists that pursue their own projects and ambitions. Not only do they work in defiance of the ruling Warrior Castes, they also have a complete disregard for even the most basic of human rights or medical ethics.
* ''TabletopGame/ChuubosMarvelousWishGrantingEngine'': Deviant science is a known phenomenon, and its practitioners have a distinct tendency for the eccentric. Main character Leonardo de Montreal practices Nightmare Science, which is like deviant science, except more biological. He also happens to be a megalomaniac who lost his innate sense of right and wrong, and made himself a moral prosthetic to replace it.
* ''TabletopGame/TheDarkEye'': The druid Archon Megalon is a mad ''psychologist''. He is fascinated by the effects of fear on the human psyche, particularly on ''crowds'', so he tends to cause panic-spreading disasters and upheavals in order to study the reactions. [[ForScience For Science.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Deadlands}}'':
** Mad Science is an arcane background, and the Mad Scientist a standard character archetype. It's caused by [[spoiler:demons whispering secrets of future technology into the ears of promising inventors]], which is as good a reason as any to go insane.
** Its sequel, ''Hell on Earth'', is set in a future where Mad Science brought about the {{Apocalypse|How}}. As a result ([[spoiler:this was the ultimate goal of the demons who caused mad science in the first place, so they stopped 'helping' when it was achieved]]), traditional mad science mostly stopped working (old devices still work, but no new ones can be created), and was replaced with [[TechnoWizard techno-shamanism]] and a more {{Anvilicious}} source of insanity: "gun spirits".
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' settings -- as a rule -- don't have scientists of ''any'' sort, but when you do find one in a highly magical world, he or she is ''probably'' a mad one.
** ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' developed the concept of tinker gnomes, and ''TabletopGame/{{Spelljammer}}'' imported some as they spread from Krynn in their insane space-steamboats. Mad science is their principal business, religion, and means of defense. They're the creators of such creatures as the giant space hamster, the carnivorous giant space hamster, the fire-breathing phase doppelganger giant space hamster or the miniature giant space hamster. And Al-mi'raj ("experiment 72"), known for non-tinker gnomes as "[[KillerRabbit Blink bunny]]". They tend to build [[RubeGoldbergDevice overcomplicated contraptions]] prone to slapstick malfunction.
** ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' has Lantan, the land full of followers of Gond, [[OddJobGods the patron of invention]]. A good example is Tinkersdam of Gond, an alchemist who, after far too many accidents involving explosions, was exiled from several cities and ended up in a cave in Tethyr. He made high explosives just for fun, and directed charges at that... but sucked at making time-fuses. He also made pre-ordered weird stuff, like a mask that allowed a sleeping half-elf to pose as an elf in reverie because it did flawlessly fit over his client's face and has quite convincing open and ''blinking'' eyes (no magic). He also got some sort of hyper-awareness in his lab -- he not only never knocked over anything by accident, but didn't even let a kettle he didn't see boil out. Which may be the main reason why he lived that long. Another example is Nadul [=DaRoni=], gnomish [=DaVinci=] {{expy}} whose ads appeared in Aurora's Catalogue with a comment "Madman, perhaps; genius, perhaps; annoying, most definitely".
** ''TabletopGame/{{Greyhawk}}'' had some pretty crazy mechanical and [[{{Magitek}} semi-magical]] SchizoTech made by humans and gnomes alike, the craziest of which--along with wacky stories of the inventors--was collected in '[[http://index.rpg.net/display-entry.phtml?mainid=4611 The Book of Wondrous Inventions]]' {{sourcebook}} (once [[http://www.somethingawful.com/d/dungeons-and-dragons/wtf-wondrous-items.php trampled]] by Website/SomethingAwful). Most of it hardly has a place in a sane game, but is sort of funny--that is, as long as TheLoonie in your party didn't read it too.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Ravenloft}}'', being a "Gothic horror" game-setting, makes regular use of this trope, with golem-crafters (Victor Mordenheim, Emil Bollenbach), MixAndMatchCritter-makers (Frantisek Markov, Vjorn Horstman), Mind-Raping psychiatrists (Daclaud Heinforth, Celeste d'Honaire-Levode), and Woobie-ish crackpots trying to reconstruct their dead loved ones (too many to list). (It also abounds in mad ''wizards,'' but that's a different trope.)
** I13 ''Adventure Pack I'', adventure "The Circus of Gandolfo". Gandolfo experiments with [[FrankensteinsMonster bringing dead bodies and body parts to life]].
** 3.5 includes a variety of classes or prestige classes that play this straight, mix this with mad wizardry, or are a stand-alone mad wizard.
** ''TabletopGame/{{Eberron}}'':
*** Being mad isn't technically a prerequisite for the Artificer class, but try finding someone with an Artificer character playing it ''any other way.''
*** Mordain the Fleshweaver is a rogue transmuter wizard who spends his time digging into the lore of the daelkyr. He lives in Droaam, the kingdom of monsters, where the locals [[HorrifyingTheHorror carefully avoid his tower]] -- and note that Droaam's locals include a sizeable population of ''ogres'' and the heads of state are night hags.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Exalted}}'':
** The entire setting is a playground for some of these. Combine the sorcerer-engineer castes, such as the Twilights, with [[WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity the Great Curse]], and every so often you'll get things like the [[SolidGoldPoop Beasts of Resplendent Liquid]].
** And then we have their [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Green Sun Prince]] counterparts, the Defilers. Mad Science is practically a divine domain of their patron, and they combine it with PsychicPowers. Their Abyssal versions, the Daybreaks, tend to fit under here if they're ''nice''.
** Given some of the requirements for creating a Liminal Exalt (someone obsessed with bringing back the dead, or creating life from death, who puts their obsession into practice), it's quite likely a Liminal's creator was one of these.
* The fan made ''TabletopGame/GeniusTheTransgression'', which is all about Mad Scientists so crazy that they can create stuff that ''bends the laws of physics''. The Catalysts of Geniuses even relate to five mad scientist stereotypes and quotes:
** ''Grimm''; anger and vengeance: "''You will pay for what you've done.''"
** ''Hoffnung''; vision and hope: "''We won't have these problems when I TakeOverTheWorld!''"
** ''Klagen''; loss and sorrow: "''No, you fools! You'll doom us all!''"
** ''Neid''; banishment and [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy]]: "''They scoffed at me, they laughed at me, TheyCalledMeMad!''"
** ''Staunen''; [[ForScience curiosity]] and amazement: "''Oh, the things I have seen...''"
* ''TabletopGame/MageTheAscension'' has the Sons/Society of Ether, a Tradition of technomantic mad scientists who see their magick as the ultimate form of True Science (what's really scary is that the Etherites have a faction ''they'' call Mad Scientists because of their disregard for ethics). Virtual Adepts and Iteration X also fit this mold. As do the [[EvilutionaryBiologist Progenitors]]. Approaching from the other direction, there are several mages (most common among The Order of Hermes, but it can pop up in any of the more mystic-minded Traditions or Crafts) that approach researching magic with the same level of intensity and lack of ethics.
* ''TabletopGame/InNomine'': Vapula, Prince of Technology, is the archetypal amoral and obsessive tinkerer with things best left alone. Lacking Archangel Jean's Heavenly access to the secrets of the physical universe, he instead works to catch up by experimenting on every soul in sight -- literally. He has an excellent relationship with Baal, Prince of the War, who has little trouble finding uses for the endless stream of experimental weapons that comes out of Vapulan laboratories.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Paranoia}}'': These turn up fairly regularly; many are employed by Friend Computer to invent ''exciting'' new weapons and devices for the the player-character Troubleshooters to test. Meanwhile, the Pro Tech secret society is made up of enthusiastic amateurs.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'' has the Alchemist class, bomb-chucking, drug-swilling {{exp|y}}ies of [[Literature/TheStrangeCaseOfDrJekyllAndMrHyde Henry Jekyll and Edward Hyde]], [[Literature/HerbertWestReanimator Herbert West]], and [[Literature/TheIslandOfDoctorMoreau Doctor Moreau]].
** Of individual note is the [[LooksLikeOrlok nosferatu]] wizard/alchemist Ramoska Arkminos, met in both the ''Curse of the Crimson Throne'' and ''Carrion Crown'' adventure paths. He's studying the curse of vampirism in hopes of curing himself, but is perfectly willing to conduct experiments of questionable ethical standing in that pursuit. He's actually a fairly [[AffablyEvil friendly]] character, perfectly willing to help the [=PC=]s out if they can come to an agreement. [[{{Necromancer}} Rolth Lamm]] in the former adventure path also qualifies, although he's almost impossible to deal with peacefully.
* ''TabletopGame/PrometheanTheCreated'' eventually reveals that most Demiurges are this; [[ScienceRelatedMemeticDisorder overwhelmed by the force of the Divine Fire]], they decide it's a perfectly logical course of action to [[CreatingLife make something new out of a corpse or parts of corpses]].
* ''TabletopGame/{{Pugmire}}'': The White Mice of the Cult of Labo Tor search for Man's 100 Theories by kidnapping people and performing horrific experiments on them. [[EveryoneHasStandards Even other rats want nothing to do with them.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'': Dr. Desmond Bradford, head of Lone Star, is notable in that his madness doesn't manifest in cackling insanity or hideous cruelty. He conducts his experiments like a good scientist, with controls and careful measures. The problem is that he ''literally'' believes [[AGodAmI he is a god]], and as such is above such petty things as "laws" and "morals". Given that Lone Star is a ''genetics'' lab, this results in experiments and creations that [[EvenEvilHasStandards would utterly horrify the Coalition States]] if they were ever exposed.
* Given its comic book theming, its only natural that ''TabletopGame/SentinelsOfTheMultiverse'' would have quite a few of these:
** Baron Blade. He becomes even madder in his promo card form "Mad Bomber," which takes place after he's had a VillainousBreakdown. He's no longer the collected aristocrat with minions and a grand plan, he's a lunatic with a gear loose, blowing things up and blasting people with a death ray.
** Biomancer is a magical one of these; he dabbles heavily in alchemy and strange technomagical contraptions during his early days, and though his biological experiments are done using magic, they still resemble {{Evilutionary Biolog|ist}}y in the end results.
** The 1950's Greatest Legacy Radio Play episode of the Letters Page podcast gives us Doctor Devlin Dour, a one-time antagonist whose plan is to mutate and mind control the citizens of the city of Megalopolis using his special poisonous concoctions.
** Writhe got his powers by playing around using shadow energy in inventions. He then later turns into an eldritch one of these when he takes an [=OblivAeon=] shard with the rest of the Void Guard. He spends his time almost obsessively creating horrific cosmic-powered inventions that are just ''wrong'' in various ways.
** Pike Industries is essentially an entire company full of mad chemists, constantly trying to find new drugs both to sell to an unsuspecting public and to help [[spoiler:The Chairman]] fuel his longevity.
** In turn Project Cocoon is this to trying to create and study superhumans, including plenty of dodgy experiments on people both mundane and superhuman.
** There's also Fort Adamant, which was specifically a military organization trying to find ways to incorporate superpowers and supertech into military applications. At first it was a mostly upright (or at least as upright as the US military usually is, anyway) organization under General Armstrong which had mostly reasonable experiments including the Bunker suit Tyler Vance wears and training the Southwest Sentinels into the Void Guard. But then Doctor Demikahv came along and turned the Fort into a madhouse of unethical and awful experiments to the point where Armstrong and the Void Guard found themselves forced to try to destroy it.
** Then there's [[spoiler:Idealist's mother]] who was playing around with life energy while trying to resurrect her dead husband.
* ''TabletopGame/SpiritOfTheCentury'': While it would require all of a normal starting character's available stunts, being one of these from the word go or, failing that, growing into it later ''is'' within reach for players in the interwar pulp setting. (Being merely a "weird" scientist capable of creating plausible inventions that are merely ahead of their time by a few decades is slightly cheaper.) Unsurprisingly, this is also a common villain archetype; between the sample characters and the example adventure there are at least two obvious ones...and ''then'' there's Doctor Methuselah with his mastery of equation-based "mathematical magic", who may well be something more sinister altogether.
* The Ordo Dracul of ''TabletopGame/VampireTheRequiem'' are vampire mad scientists, prone to extremely unethical experimentation to circumvent the weaknesses of their kind. A favorite initiation ritual of theirs is for a new member of the covenant to select a human at random, brutually murder them, and then study all the different ways in which that person's death has changed the world around them; this neatly encapsulates both their methodology and their complete lack of a conscience.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'':
** Fabius Bile. His [[GenuineHumanHide lab coat is made out of human flesh]]. That about sums up his state of mind.
** Magnus the Red, Daemon Primarch of the Thousand Sons, arguably qualifies for this trope, though he's more of a mad wizard. He's got the reckless pursuit of knowledge, megalomania, production of the odd superweapon, and lead a legion of super soldiers into daemonic corruption.
** Every Mekboy ever. When they aren't building [[HumongousMecha big stompy idols of Gork and Mork]], they're building chaotic field artillery or welding big guns onto bigger guns. Its because being the devolved descendants of living weapons made to fight autonomously in the War in Heaven gives them visions and innate understanding of technology that they do this. One shudders to imagine what a full Krork Mekanik was capable of.
** The Ork equivalent to a doctor is a Painboy, who perform all sorts of experiments on their subjects such as replacing damaged limbs with bionics(sometimes they replace the wrong one), or a squig brain transplant. They at least use anesthesia on them in which case they give them a concussion. Orks look at painboyz and decide that their injuries aren't really that bad.
*** Mad Doks are nuts even by painboy standards, as they have a large disinterest in anything that doesn't help them in perfecting the art of "serjery" and other Orks legitimately fear (which is an impressive feat) them, except for Meks who are all to happy to have fellow scientists interested in brain-wiring willing (or unwilling) subjects to big stompy walkers.
** Vashtorr the Arkifane is a [[OurDemonsAreDifferent Greater Daemon]] born from the desire to innovate. In other words, he's a ''god of mad science.''
** The [[MachineWorship Adeptus Mechanicus]] tend to get like this as you get further up the chain of command, especially with [[GeniusBruiser Masters of the Forge]]- part [[SuperSoldier Space Marine]], part TechnoWizard, all trouble. The Dark Mechanicus are even worse, doing anything in the pursuit of knowledge, the only thing keeping them from being completely corrupted by the Warp in which they reside is the fact that almost all of their bodies have been converted into machines. If building a robotic dinosaur with a plasma cannon for a head and using an ensnared daemon to power it doesn't make you this trope, really, what will?
*** Belisarius Cawl is a different type of crazy in comparison to the rest of the Ad-Mech, but it's enough that [[EveryoneHasStandards the organization itself considers him a borderline Heretic]] due to his relentless focus on innovation and invention rather than salvaging and preservation. The lines he's crossed include salvaging Xenos tech, creating artificial intelligence based on his own mind to back himself up (which alone should have long gotten him torn apart by the Inquisition) and, while assisting Guilliman in creating the Primaris Marines, [[spoiler:proposing the use of salvaged Traitor Legion and Lost Legion geneseed to create some more]], which he was forbidden to do and got him yelled at quite extensively. Guilliman only continued to work with him because he's [[CrazyEnoughToWork the only one radical and crazy enough to work (and pull off) what he wants to do]], but he still thinks he's gonna try it anyways. In short, Cawl replaces the usual dogmatic insanity of the Adeptus Mechanicus with pure desire for discovery and innovation no matter the cost, morality or risk, which is more familiar yet terribly rare in the Imperium.
** Dark Eldar Haemonculi, except their "science" is [[CruelAndUnusualDeath killing and torturing people in all kinds of ridiculously violent, cruel and painful ways]], and turning members of their own race ([[FridgeHorror sometimes willingly, sometimes not]]) into horrid testaments to BodyHorror like Wracks and Grotesques. Even the otherwise AlwaysChaoticEvil Dark Eldar are [[EvenEvilHasStandards slightly creeped out by them]]. When Fabius Bile ended up in their clutches, he impressed them so much with his own twisted genius that they shared notes and let him go.
** The species of Jokaero are basically this trope mixed with monkeys. They are aliens that look orangutans, if orangutans could make just about anything human beings could except impossibly better by magnitudes. This makes them the only source of "digital weapons" in the universe, tiny rings which are actually also one-shot short-range versions of [[HandCannon high-powered pistols]] normally used by military forces among the galaxy. The mad part comes from how they aren't really sentient and all of their creations are created by their need and/or whim so anyone hoping to benefit from their craftsmanship will have to deal with how [[BunnyEarsLawyer they can't be ordered around and they'll probably manage to escape no matter how hard you try to pen them in.]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': Any Skaven from Clans Skyre, Moulder or Pestilens. They nicely cover all three of the main Mad Scientist archetypes: Moulder are the ''Franchise/{{Frankenstein}}'' types, creating a variety of ratlike monsters through breeding, alchemical mutation and stitching subjects with random body parts, weapons and metal plating. Pestilens are the disease merchants, mixing together various toxic goops with the eventual goal of making the perfect plague to unleash on the Overworld. Skyre are the engineers, making [[GreenRocks Warpstone]]-shooting gatling guns, cannons that fire green lasers, and [[MundaneMadeAwesome giant armoured hamster wheels that throw off green lightning indiscriminately]]. These three clans then sell their services to all the myriad Warlord ("normal") clans, to aid them in their conquests. For the record, the other "technologically advanced" races have only just invented gunpowder, and most are still on bows and arrows. Although the Dwarfs do have this weird steam-powered gyrocopter. But Dwarfs tend towards ''sane'' engineering, in that they have this really conservative engineering guild keeping them from going Skaven. While you do get the occasional young maverick, most of those tend to stop being mavericks as soon as they lose their first limb to an explosion. It's standard for aspiring Dwarf engineers to [[TheyCalledMeMad get kicked out of the guild]] when they try to invent something new; they usually join the human guild for a while until they refine their prototype to something more reliable and trustworthy. Dwarfs like to maintain their reputation for machines that run like a Swiss watch.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Real Life]]
* The great science writer/explainer (and grandmaster SF writer in his own right) Creator/IsaacAsimov once theorized that the concept of the Mad Scientist was born on April 22, 1915, during [[UsefulNotes/WorldWar1 the Battle of Ypres]], because that is when and where [[DeadlyGas poison gas]] was first used in combat. In his 1971 essay "The Sin of the Scientist", Asimov built an argument that by turning ''the very air that you breathe'' into a weapon, the creators of poison gas achieved a new level of evil, beyond anything that science had ever produced before. Gas warfare was seen as being so monstrous that it was outlawed just ten years later as part of the 1925 Geneva Conventions - perhaps the fastest that any weapon has ever been the subject of such an action.
* UsefulNotes/IsaacNewton, of all people. Throughout his life he placed more emphasis on the occult than science, considering his groundbreaking work to be only a [[MagnumOpusDissonance minor achievement]]. He spent a considerable amount of time on biblical research and attempted to prove that the world would not end before 2060. He went mad at one point and accused philosopher John Locke of sending women to distract him from his divine mission. It's suspected that the mercury he used in his experiments caused brain damage and caused this episode. He once slipped a leather needle between his eye and eye socket "to test his eye theory". Thankfully, there were no lasting injuries, but you have to ask...why?
* UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla:
** Tesla is the man who might have given creation to the whole trope: He built a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicola_Tesla#Directed-energy_weapon Teleforce Death Ray]]. If that's not mad science, we don't know what is.
** How about harnessing the world's biggest waterfall to power a city, producing 150-foot lightning bolts from his ominous mountain laboratory in Colorado, and plotting to broadcast free power to the world from the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wardenclyffe_Tower Wardenclyffe Tower]]?
** Or, alternatively, how about that he had OCD and synesthesia, had flashbacks to his brother's death whenever he was stressed, and, in his later years, would talk to pigeons and mail letters to [[Creator/MarkTwain Samuel Clemens]]...who'd been dead for decades? He was definitely a psychologically-troubled member of the science profession, even if he hadn't been a Mad Scientist.
* UsefulNotes/AlbertEinstein and the German nuclear physicists heavily influenced early Mad Scientists like Rotwang in the late 1920s. Crucial to the popularity of these [[HerrDoktor "eccentric German physicists"]] was how they rehabilitated the image of scientists as [[TheSpock logic driven]] pacifists in the wake of WWI, at a time when both war and Germans were intensely unpopular. (Einstein, with his characteristic wild hairdo, became the first scientific superstar and the first [[ProudToBeAGeek Popular Geek]], helping spawn the concept of a ReluctantMadScientist whose inventions are inevitably misused.)
* The infamous [[UsefulNotes/NaziGermany Nazi]] scientist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Mengele Josef Mengele]], AKA "the Angel of Death". It's not unheard of to think that his name was pronounced "Mangle", given what he did to the prisoners of Auschwitz (which included among other activities, unnecessary amputations, injecting toxic substances into victim's bodies, and ripping out healthy teeth for study). Mengele was primarily an anthropologist (he was a [=PhD=]/MD) and while not an incompetent one, used his experience to advance Nazi racial theories and led him to commit many of his atrocities in an effort to prove their supposed validity.
* In a similar vein, the Japanese scientists of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unit_731 Unit 731]] led by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiro_Ishii Surgeon General Shiro Ishii]] performed experiments on [=POWs=] and civilains during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII and the UsefulNotes/SecondSinoJapaneseWar. Their experiemts ran the gamut, from frostbite experiments to live dissection, but their most infamous activities came from testing biological and chemical weapons on live subjects before their usage in battle. (Ironically, when Shiro Ishii traded Unit 731's results to the U.S. in exchange for amnesty after the war, the U.S. discovered that their equivalent research programs were more advanced, despite having been conducted without the "benefit" of mad science.)
* The scientists behind [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MKULTRA MKULTRA]] studied various methods to use in mind control experiments, with the most prominent of these being drugging unwitting participants with psychoactive substances such as LSD. Notably, documents collected from Unit 731 and Nazi war criminals were used as a base from which MKULTRA researches drew from in their experiments.
** Henry Murray was a psychologist who conducted psychologically damaging social experiments on students of Harvard University, in which they were subjected to intense verbal abuse to test their responses to extreme stress. Murray also supervised the research of psychologist Timothy Leary into psychoactive substances, and is theorized by multiple experts to have been involved with MKULTRA. One of Murray's [[DrivenToVillainy victims was 17-year-old Ted Kaczynski]], better known as [[MadBomber The Unabomber]].
** Kaczynski himself could qualify, as he was a [[MadMathematician brilliant mathematician who earned his Ph.D.]] before starting his life of crime. After retiring from academics he attempted to live in the wilderness but snapped and became an EcoTerrorist in response to witnessing deforestation near his cabin. He then successfully managed to evade the authorities throughout his 18-year bombing campaign, utilizing increasingly sophisticated explosives, until his brother David recognized his writing style and turned him in following the publication of his manifesto. After his arrest, Ted was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia which was likely exacerbated by Murray's experiments. Kaczynski was diagnosed with [[YourDaysAreNumbered terminal cancer in late 2021]], but at the moment continues to communicate with the public through letters, seeking successors to his VillainousLegacy.
* Austrian-American psychiatrist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Reich Wilhelm Reich]], whose work on human sexuality led him to "discover" Orgone Energy, an omnipresent cosmic lifeforce that was generated (among other things) by orgasm. He sold Orgone Accumulators and built Orgone-powered "Cloudbusters" which could supposedly make it rain, and ended up being shut down by the Food And Drug Administration for selling lunatic medical devices that didn't work. Another version of the story has government agents smashing his laboratory and burning his books because the "effectiveness" of his work offended the country's puritanical values. He even had minions, and his followers continue his work to this day at his house in Rangeley, Maine.
* Psychologist [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Harlow Harry Harlow]] was infamous for his experiments on monkeys to simulate the effects of ParentalNeglect, possibly as a result of his [[FreudianExcuse own parents]] [[NecessarilyEvil and a desire to prevent more children from suffering as he did]]. He was a LargeHam as well, utilizing dramatically-named devices like the "rape rack", "iron maidens", and the "[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pit_of_despair pit of despair]]". As horrible as it all sounds, [[WellIntentionedExtremist his work formed the foundation of what we know today about cognitive development]]. Harlow knew that in order to understand the human heart, he had to break it (or in this case, one similar to it) and was often criticized by other scientists for using the term "love".
* Aforementioned webcomic ''Webcomic/CaseyAndAndy'' twice had the "Casey And Andy Mad Science Award" for examples of Mad Science in real life. Both times, NASA won: in [[http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=382 2004]] for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genesis_spacecraft Genesis Probe]] and again in [[http://www.galactanet.com/comic/view.php?strip=508 2005]] for the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Impact_space_mission Deep Impact space mission]]. It also appears to have been awarded to the Mythbusters, at least in their early episodes.
* Alexander Bogdanov -- Russian-Soviet biologist, science fiction writer, Communist revolutionary, economist and possibly a real-life VampireWannabe. He is renowned for his saner moments such as creating an early precursor to systems theory, but Bogdanov was much more (in)famous for his obsessive experimenting with blood. He believed that treatment and transfusion of young blood to old people was the way to reverse aging, cure diseases and achieve immortality. Even among early Bolsheviks who were a quite eccentric and innovative bunch, he stood out. He [[DeathByIrony died during a blood transfusion experiment on himself]] in 1929, just in time to avoid being executed along with other Old Bolsheviks in [[ThePurge The Great Purge]].
** Surprisingly, Bogdanov wasn't the first [[VindicatedByHistory or last]] scientist to experiment with blood in this manner, as German physician [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andreas_Libavius Andreas Libavius]] allegedly performed a similar experiment in 1615 and experiments to treat Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease in the elderly using proteins found in young people's blood plasma are currently ongoing.
* UsefulNotes/ThomasEdison:
** He is often portrayed in popular fiction as an evil mad scientist -- not because of his scientific skills, but because of his [[CorruptCorporateExecutive vicious business acumen.]] He ran a sort of 'idea farm' at Menlo Park and recruited down-on-their-luck inventors to hammer out new devices, allegedly taking the credit (and patent rights) for many of them with or without some of his own input in exchange for financial support and a place to work. Critics claim he didn't always pay what he promised, with Tesla's case being just the most famous.
** Plus, he electrocuted an elephant to scare people against Alternating Current, which [[UsefulNotes/NikolaTesla his rival's]] power company used. [[CorruptCorporateExecutive He possibly invented the Electric Chair to scare people against Alternating Current!]]
** Edison also paid gangs of minions with clubs to smash up early movie theaters and beat the projectionists because they weren't using Edison Brand Projectors.
* DARPA, the US Government's official program to fund Mad Science. Their only mission is "radical innovation". They fund all sorts of seemingly off the wall projects. Among their successes are night-vision goggles, GPS, a little thing called the Internet, and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DARPA_Grand_Challenge self-driving cars]].
** The Department of Defense also sponsored the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project Stargate Project]], an attempt to develop and weaponize PsychicPowers (that later received [[Film/TheMenWhoStareAtGoats a film based on it]]). Can't blame 'em for trying, [[HumansArePsychicInTheFuture maybe next time]].
* There is a real life psychological diagnosis known as "Mad Scientist Syndrome", so named because it tends to be a case of actually believing ''(some wacky event)'' such as alien invasion, or collapse of the world economy, will "Show them all that I was right!"
* Yet another article from ''Website/{{Cracked}}'' about the [[ScienceIsBad dangers of science]] [[http://www.cracked.com/article_17039_9-real-life-mad-scientists.html here]]. Surprisingly, Josef Mengele didn't get mentioned. Perhaps [[EveryoneHasStandards the Cracked writers]] [[DudeNotFunny didn't want to dedicate an entry]] to a guy whose idea of "science" was torturing helpless prisoners for kicks. Seanbaby's article about exploring the depths of the human mind with ''VideoGame/TheSims3'' pokes at the whole Nazi scientist thing. Why, without ethics, he says, scientific knowledge increased by leaps and bounds! But then World War II ended and the Nazis that were left were forced to treat Jews, gypsies, and assorted other non-Aryans like human beings again, and that all stopped. So isn't it wonderful now that EA has created a people simulator we can use for the same thing?
* Heston Blumenthal specialises in using scientific study to create tastier food (or, to use the specialist term, molecular gastronomy), his restaurant is currently number two in the world. A quick look at the menu will tell you why he's earnt a place of honour on this list. As will a quick look at him in his kitchen. Scientist-looking chef whites, BaldOfEvil, frothing beakers of liquid nitrogen and dry ice... the only thing stopping him being a classic mad scientist is that he hasn't actually killed anyone yet. (Well, that, and the fact that he's actually this kind of giggly guy with a childlike love of messing with people's expectations and bringing them massive hits of nostalgia.)
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buckminster_Fuller Buckminster Fuller]]. He invented many things, few of which saw much use. He made up words by dicing up other words and sticking the parts together. He slept two hours a day, spread across four 30-minute naps, for two years. [[Website/{{Facebook}} He kept a diary of his entire life, updating it every 15 minutes and including a family history, newspaper clippings, sketches, and copies of all bills and correspondence.]] From 1915 to 1983. He was still very influential, however. One invention of his that really did take off is the geodesic dome, one of the most efficient ways of enclosing space ever devised, most famously used for EPCOT at Disney World. Also, when a weird class of carbon nanoparticles was discovered that had a geodesic shape, what did they call them? Buckyballs! Or buckminsterfullerene, if you want to be technical.
* Jack Parsons -- One of the men that helped refine the jet engine and allow for space flight. He was also a disciple of Creator/AleisterCrowley, and teamed up with none other than L. Ron Hubbard. Their attempt was to summon a goddess which would help the new aeon bloom into one of free love and peace rather than war -- something which made even Crowley wonder what these nitwits were up to. At one point an angered Parsons is said to have summoned a hurricane against Hubbard. Parsons saw no differentiation between science and magic and died when his lab exploded.
* Edward Teller, the inventor of the hydrogen bomb, who pushed like crazy to get the U.S. government to build it and openly advocated nuking the U.S.S.R. Also advocated using a nuke to excavate a harbor in Alaska, and building a tunnel across America using nukes to do the mining. Once used a nuclear test to light his cigar (a man could get cancer doing a thing like that.[[note]]The nuclear test thing, not the smoking. Well, technically both.[[/note]]). He was also the main push behind the ''Excalibur'' system -- a nuclear bomb pumped gamma/x-ray laser. An advanced version could fire at hundreds of targets simultaneously. While the principle works, SDI as a whole was doomed to sink long before they dealt with inevitable technical problems, including independently aiming a hundred lasing wires.
* There exists another... [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troy_Hurtubise Troy Hurtubise]], a Canadian backyard inventor, who has invented little things like fire-paste, a grey clay-like material that can withstand blow-torch-grade heat directly for up to 10 minutes. How did he test this? By placing a mask of it over his own face! (What? How else would you do it?) He also invented a viable power armour system that sprang up as an offshoot of his ''bear fighting armour''. The kicker? He invented all of this virtually on his own time and resources.
* David Hahn, a/k/a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Radioactive_Boy_Scout The Radioactive Boy Scout]], a 17 year old who attempted to build a homemade [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor breeder nuclear reactor]].
* Harry Grindell Matthews, an American scientist who claimed to have built [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Grindell_Matthews#Death_ray a death ray]].
* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Toppan Jane Toppan]], a nursing student turned serial killer. She would dose patients with morphine and atropine to see what it would do to their nervous systems, climb in bed with them, and hold them as they died. She also claimed to get a sexual thrill from her murders.
* Some of these keep a lower profile, remaining content with experimenting with [[{{Hellfire}} some of]] [[MadeOfExplodium the nastiest]] [[DeadlyGas compounds]] [[HollywoodAcid imaginable]], and making scientific papers about it. One name that always seems to come up, however, is that of Thomas M. Klapötke. [[HairTriggerExplosive Let's just say that you basically have to wear body armor if you want to come anywhere near whichever lab he's in]].
** [[http://blogs.sciencemag.org/pipeline/archives/category/things-i-wont-work-with Here's a little foray into some of these papers.]]
* John Haldane, the man the WWI British government turned to in order to get a gas mask designed to protect their soldiers from German gas. He had worked down the mines of Scotland, so he was used to higher-ups issuing crap kit they'd never have to use themselves. He was determined that that would not happen in this case -- so he tested chlorine gas on himself. In his own house. With his daughter instructed to break down the door and rescue him if he didn't knock back. Bad. Fucking. Ass.
-->''"Haldane was a great self-experimenter -- he thought the human organism was the best animal to experiment on because it could report on what it was experiencing."''
* Gabriel Kron, the brilliant Hungarian engineer responsible for diving deep into diakoptics and related esoterica related to electrical machinery, a poster child for the over-unity/weird science crowd, and a forgotten hero/misunderstood genius of 20th century science. Introduced the term "Phase Creep" to describe spooky relativistic effects caused by large, spinning motors (a problem of which General Electric hired him to resolve). No more time travel problems here!
* CERN was accused of this trope before the Hadron Supercollider came online, complete with protests fueled by a dodgy understanding of physics that feared thing would generate mini black holes that would grow and consume Earth. Seems Earth is still here.
* William Moulton Marston: Co-inventor of the lie detector, the blood pressure cuff, and ComicBook/WonderWoman comics. Definitely brilliant, definitely off his gourd. His lived in a happy polyamorous triad with his wife and ''their'' partner/research assistant, and argued in scientific journals about the inherent superiority of women and [[NotMakingthisUpDisclaimer that the path to a more loving and just world could be achieved through proper application of BDSM]]. He was also surprisingly savvy about dealing with Creator/DCComics; while most creators surrendered their characters for a one-time payment, Dr. Marston arranged a deal that more or less leased Wonder Woman to the company, with a share of the goods going to his estate for the care of his wives and children, a deal that lasted at least until Olive Byrne's (the last surviving member of the triad) death in the Eighties.
* Hideo Murai was the head scientist of the Aum Shinrikyo ApocalypseCult FarEastAsianTerrorists that became known for the Tokyo sarin attacks. He was totally dedicated to the group and its leader, and worked on both the actual weapons and technology handled and developed by the group and on the completely nutty ideas proposed by the guru.
* Ilya Ivanovich Ivanov was a Russian biologist who developed modern systems of livestock artificial insemination, creating a program that allowed Tsarist Russia, and later the Soviet Union, to produce animals in large numbers. He was also obsessed with using artificial insemination to create animal crossbreeds, including failed attempts to transplant human semen into a chimpanzee.
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_E._H._Jones David Jones]] invoked the trope for fun. He had a long-standing column for British science mag "Nature" where he, in his persona "Daedalus", presented one wacky invention after another, and you never could be sure if it would work nevertheless.
* Elon Musk has reached MemeticBadass status for his [[BuffySpeak mad sciencing]], having built and sold a ([[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial not a]]) flamethrower for the hell of it and shooting his car into space just to prove what the Space-X rocket was capable of. And this is only a few specific examples. A common joke is he's allowed to do what he wants out of fear he'll turn into [[Film/SpiderMan1 The Green Goblin]] if anyone tries to stop him. Granted Musk isn't directly involved in most of the research and inventions conducted by his companies and is more of a TechBro than an actual scientist, but the internet simply doesn't care.
* Anonymous is a HackerCollective of Mad Scientists who are infamous for [[TheCracker various cyber crimes]] such as DDOS attacks on governments and corporations, targeting controversial groups such as terrorists and cults, and disrupting the mainstream media they disapprove of. Of course, they claim to be {{Well Intentioned Extremist}}s who wanted to bring down corporate tyranny and incompetent governances for good, but many internet users would disagree.
* Dr. John Kellogg of the Kellogg's corn flakes fame. Not only did he think [[SelfAbuse masturbation was extremely dangerous]], he even specifically invented corn flakes as a way to [[ArtisticLicenseBiology lower people's sex drives]] and helped popularize male circumcision in America for similar reasons, as well as prescribing bizarre treatments such as yogurt enemas for other ailments.
* B.F Skinner, of the Skinner box fame. He even argued that [[TheEvilsOfFreeWill personal freedom and autonomy were bad things]] and that people in charge should [[ManipulativeBastard use "behavior modification" to make people do what they want.]]
* [[https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCtHaxi4GTYDpJgMSGy7AeSw Michael Reeves]] is a [=YouTube=] engineer, programmer and all-around crackhead. He's well known for his absurd number of tasers and his obsession with killing sea turtles by shoving plastic straws up their nose, and has invented [[SarcasmMode revolutionary devices]] like a microwave powered by screaming, a Roomba that curses whenever it bumps into things, and [[CrossesTheLineTwice Trigger Me Elmo, the world's first race detecting toy]]. Michael himself has admitted that while everybody else with skills like his is trying to make the world a better place, [[ForTheLulz he's just trying to be the best Jimmy Neutron he can be]].
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Konopka Joseph Konopka]], better known as [[CardCarryingVillain Dr. Ch@os]], was a ChildProdigy computer system administrator from Wisconsin who one day decided that GoodIsBoring.
** After spending ten months in prison for various acts of vandalism to alleviate said boredom at the age of 19, he started his own hacking group called the "Realm of Ch@os", with one of his former underlings later being arrested after using what he learned from his tutelage to successfully hack into ''[[UsefulNotes/ThePentagon the United States Department of Defense]]''. Konopka was known to routinely sabotage electrical substations and power pylons to cause power surges across entire towns, a feat that would easily result in electrocution without expert knowledge. He and his group would also sell pirated software, [[DoNotAdjustYourSet hijack radio broadcasts]], perform arson, damage the computer systems of Internet service providers, and disabled an air traffic control system, causing $800,000 worth of damage across 13 Wisconsin counties over the course of the late '90s. Konopka would allegedly use threats and violence to keep his accomplices in line, on one occasion assaulting one with a stun gun ForTheEvulz.
** Once the authorities caught up with him, he was facing up to 30 years in prison but violated his bail by fleeing to UsefulNotes/{{Chicago}} and using abandoned sections of the subway system as an ElaborateUndergroundBase. His reign of terror ended when he discovered in an abandoned warehouse several crates of industrial cyanide (illegal to possess in the state of Illinois without a lawful reason), which he took home with him because he thought it was cool. After being caught by the campus police of the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) after repeatedly using their tunnel systems for burglaries, they found various tools, schematics, and one of the cyanide vials. [[OhCrap Half a year after]] [[UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror September 11, 2001]].
** The F.B.I. was immediately brought in and after learning of the rest of the cyanide from Konopka and his accomplice, the entire [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Line_(CTA) Blue Line]] was shut down to sweep for traps and chemical weapons. Konopka denied having any sort of purpose for the cyanide with the vial he kept on him presumably [[CyanidePill to avoid going back to prison]], but regardless he was convicted for conspiracy to commit acts of terror and spent 16 years in prison before being released in 2019. He spent his time in prison MacGyvering [[PlayAlongPrisoner electronic escape tools capable of disabling surveillance equipment and alarmed fences]] ''for fun'', disassembling and reconfiguring them to pass the time. Since then he's [[TheAtoner turned over a new leaf]] and expressed an interest in a cybersecurity career.
* Computer scientist and MillionairePlayboy [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McAfee John McAfee]] invented the first commercial anti-virus software in the 1980s and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKgf5PaBzyg founded the company that bears his namesake]]. However, he had a long history of recreational drug use that made him inclined towards reckless, impulsive behavior such as [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DiN3rq6kqKI a brief stint as a Central American warlord and allegedly putting out a hit on his neighbor for poisoning one of his dogs]]. He was on the run for a while before being detained by Guatemalan authorities and deported back to the US, married a prostitute 30 years his junior, ran for president as a Libertarian, before becoming a fugitive ''again'' for [[IntimidatingRevenueService tax evasion]] but sought the Libertarian presidential nomination for a second time anyway. He was very active on social media throughout all of this, discussing topics such as cryptocurrency, yoga, and [[BestialityIsDepraved consensual sex with]] ''[[HotSkittyOnWailordAction whales]]''. Unfortunately, he was found dead[[note]]or not, if his "[[https://www.wired.co.uk/article/dangerous experiments]]" regarding [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_suicide_and_immortality quantum immortality]] bore any fruit[[/note]] in the summer of 2021 after his arrest by Spanish authorities, shortly before his planned extradition back to the US. This spawned many conspiracy theories surrounding his [[NeverSuicide alleged suicide, due to his frequent assertions that he was not suicidal and if anyone said he hanged himself, he was murdered]].
* Dr. [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Abian Alexander Abian]], a mathematics professor at Iowa State University, became famous for his proposal to ''blow up the Moon'' to fight climate change and [[TheyCalledMeMad compared himself to Galileo]]. His theories were debunked by astronomers (including NASA), who asserted that not only would the entire nuclear arsenal of mankind be insufficient to destroy the Moon, but if we actually could it would have the ''opposite'' effects from what he purported and the debris alone would be harmful to all life. What is it with mathematicians (see Kaczynski above) [[MadBomber and explosions]]?
* [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Bronner "Dr." Emanuel Theodore Bronner]] was mad in a much more literal sense. As in, he had just as much in common with the rambling, stream-of-consciousness, probably-genuinely-schizophrenic "green ink" type of madmen such as Francis E. Dec or Gene "Time Cube" Ray. He was a soap salesman whose incomprehensible ramblings[[note]]which take up the entirety of the soap's labeling ''in fine print,'' by the way,[[/note]] claimed his soap could bring metaphysical cleansing in addition to the literal physical kind one would normally expect of soap, as well as unite all of humanity together. Somehow. What earns him a place on this list is the fact that his soap is, surprisingly enough, a genuinely impressive product in its own right (if unable to live up to the more abstract selling points), being a MasterOfAll soap useable for pretty much any soapy application with the right dilution ratio, to the point where it's still available for purchase today. You can get your own box [[https://www.drbronner.com/ here]].
* [[XMakesAnythingCool X]] Development, previously known as Website/{{Google}} X, a secretive company proclaimed to work on "radical" solutions. The stuff they worked on included Google Brain, advanced AI learning research with ethical controversies that [[AIIsACrapshoot surely can never go wrong]], and purportedly, teleportation, which was found to violate the laws of physics.
* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uNpjqH-mQQ Ed Currie]], Mad Horticulturist, created the world's [[BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce hottest chili pepper of several magnitudes]] by carefully cross-breeding the hottest pepper plants he could get his hands on, just because he loves spicy foods that much. Like any good mad scientist Ed enjoys to pain his creation causes to others, and like any good mad scientist he has [[ProfessorGuineaPig repeatedly taste-tested his peppers]] to the point that he is immune to their effects.
* ZigZagged by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/He_Jiankui_affair Jiankui He]], a Chinese biophysicist who created the first [[DesignerBabies genetically-modified humans]] in 2018 in order to bolster the newborn twins' resistance to HIV. While this doesn't sound like much compared to the other examples on this page and he's perfectly sane, human germline engineering is a ''[[EvilutionaryBiologist massive]]'' no-no to the scientific community and virtually all the world's governments, [[EvenEvilHasStandards even]] RedChina, as the technology isn't yet fully understood and can easily lead to unintended consequences. In fact, his experiment may have actually enhanced their brains as the altered [=CCR5=] gene is linked to improved memory function in mice ([[AmbiguousSituation whether this was intended or not is yet to be determined]]). While Lulu and Nana are reported to be in fine health as of December 2021, He himself was sentenced to three years in prison and fined the equivalent of almost half a million USD.
** One of the reasons He faced such widespread condemnation is that scientists are intended to have their work peer-reviewed and their data analysis vetted in scientific journals. He attempted to do so but [[TheyCalledMeMad his manuscripts were rejected due to the illegal nature of his proposal]]. One of his confidants, Professor William Hurlbut of Stanford University, stated that if they had been published it would have offered some legitimacy to the experiment and He was essentially TrappedInVillainy.
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