Dancing Naked in the Mind Field

Updated June 26, 2020 | Infoplease Staff

The man who made one of this century's most important scientific breakthroughs was also visited by aliens appearing as a glowing raccoon. This is his story. In 1993, Kary Mullis was awarded the Nobel Prize for inventing the polymerase chain reaction, a DNA process that revolutionized genetics (to celebrate, he went surfing). Mullis dances through the brilliant, irreverent arcs of his own mind in this uncategorizable work. It's eclectic, fast-paced, and truly bizarre — from his unusual ideas about AIDS, the ozone layer, astrology, nutrition … to Mullis' accounts of hallucinatory drug experiences, multiple wives and affairs, and being saved from a recreational drug overdose (antihistamines plus nitrous oxide) by an astral projection. Dancing is playful to the last, provocative if not contagious, and all the more intriguing coming from the pen of a Nobel Laureate.