My favorite modern paradoxer was the British astronomer Fred Hoyle, who coined the term “big bang” (although he loathed the theory) and helped elucidate how light elements fuse into heavy ones in the cores of stars. He once tried to convince me that the AIDS virus was a U.S. military experiment that had gone awry, and that flu viruses came from outer space. To paraphrase Alexander Solzhenitsyn: The line between brilliance and looniness runs through every great scientist’s brain.

Calilasseia wrote:Meanwhile, it might be apposite for everyone posting here to take a peek at this earlier thread. Not quite the same subject, but related, and therefore apposite. In particular, I invite everyone to read my little dissertation about P. M. S. Blackett.