Mechnikov
I was reading about the patriarchs of modern biology and medicine when I found out about Ilya Mechnikov, the Russian who discovered Phagocytes (which earned him half of the 1908 nobel prize in medicine). Then I read a bit about the biography of this great scientist (he worked with Pasteur!), and found that he had had a very interesting life.
I won’t tell you all about it. Go and find for yourself. I just want to mention that he was married twice, both his wives died, and that he tried to commit suicide after each such event.
At his first attempt he drank PLENTY of opium; which didn’t work for him. At the second attempt he infected himself with a deadly disease he was studying at the time - which made him very ill, but nonetheless alive. Then he left Russia for Paris, studied the immune system, and won the Nobel.
You come to think that the crazy Russian stories of the mid 19th century are all true.
