Remember, if you want to repeat this feat or replicate it you must first delve deeply into a topic that has no solution and learn every single thing you possibly can about it until your brain is simply unable to absorb or process any more information and then do LSD about it.

Mullis acquired a reputation for erratic behavior at Cetus, once threatening to bring a gun to work; he also engaged in “public lovers’ quarrels” with his then-girlfriend (a fellow chemist at the company) and “nearly came to blows with another scientist” at a staff party, according to California Magazine. White recalled: “It definitely put me in a tough spot. His behavior was so outrageous that the other scientists thought that the only reason I didn’t fire him outright was that he was a friend of mine.”

After resigning from Cetus in 1986, Mullis served as director of molecular biology for Xytronyx, Inc. in San Diego for two years. While inventing a UV-sensitive ink at Xytronyx, he became skeptical of the existence of the ozone hole.

And he only goes downhill from there…

I can totally picture him seeing noodles dancing to a sick beat and then going “holy shit”

Allow me to light my pipe. I’ll sit in my chair by the fire as some kind soul tells me the story…