Ten Incredible Real-Life Mad Scientists

Extreme intelligence often comes with extreme eccentricity, as you are well aware. After all, the archetypical mad scientist of the movies has its real-world precedents. Any list of mad scientists has some that you are familiar with, but you may not be familiar with all ten of these crazy creatives. Did you know about the work of Ilya Ivanov?

In 1924 the Bolshevik government granted Ivanov permission to leave the country for the express purpose of breeding hybrid ape-humans. In the summer of 1926, Ivanov, by now in Paris, grafted a woman’s ovary into a chimp named Nora and tried to fertilize her with human sperm. In November that year, he travelled to Africa and inseminated a trio of chimps with yet more human sperm. Then when none of the animals fell pregnant, he changed tactics and instead tried to find Soviet women who would willingly be inseminated with chimp sperm – something for which he acquired no less than five volunteers. However, before the experiments could get properly underway, a Stalinist removal of scientists resulted in him being sent away to Kazakhstan, where he died within two years of his arrival.

Believe it or not, that's not the craziest of the bunch. Read more horror stories in the list 10 Incredible Real-Life Mad Scientists.