Big Bang scientist takes own life January 27, 2010

Big Bang scientist takes own life January 27, 2010

www.smh.com.au

Physicist Andrew Lange, co-leader of an international team that produced a detailed image of remnants of the Big Bang showing the universe is flat, has died in an apparent suicide, police say.

He was 52.

Lange was a physicist at the California Institute of Technology. University President Jean-Lou Chameau notified the institution in an email that Lange apparently took his own life on Friday.

Lange checked into a hotel last Thursday and the next morning housekeepers found him dead, apparently due to asphyxiation, police Detective Lieutenant John Dewar said.

Lange recently resigned a

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Guys I did a search on this guy on ATS and I couldn't find any related posts ... which surprised me.

This seems to be another unusual death from some one who had recently resigned from a very prominent position, close to space exploration.

Any further information that anyone can share?

Sounds suspicious on the surface, in other news it said that it "appears to be suicide"

www.smh.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow, that's pretty interesting and sad. As I don't know any info on this, I would start to speculate.. But it's still weird..

R.I.P

You have to wonder, at 52 years old there would be a history of threats and suicide attempts if it were truly out of depression. If he had no history or underlying issues, I would be suspicious.

Just a thought......


Perhaps he felt that his studies into this field of science had reached a point that he was now restricted by the physical properties of being confined in a body.

He may have just shed this to continue research into the true meaning of matter, energy, space, and time.

reply to post by anxietydisorder


Interesting thought, maybe he found out something none of us knows, on the other hand highly intelligent people commit suicide all the time.

reply to post by jpvskyfreak


Sad…man should never see himself as an island.

I see a man that was consumed with his work…putting the pieces of the universe together and forgetting too live. Seems to happen with single middle aged men these days, especially in his chosen field of physics.

“Life is a journey, not a destination”. Ralph Waldo Emerson

rgs

Originally posted by Aquarius1
reply to post by anxietydisorder

 

on the other hand highly intelligent people commit suicide all the time.

Point:
We hear about successful and intelligent people committing suicide more often than others because of the positions they hold.

Fact:

The British Medical Journal conducted one of the largest studies ever on the relevant coincidences between suicide rates and IQ test scores. The researchers found that men with exceptionally low scores were two to three times more likely to commit self-murder or suicide. The study was
conducted in Sweden, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. One million men were tested for IQ level at age 18 when they entered national service. These men were followed until reaching 44 years of age. During that time, 2,811 men committed suicide. Of the suicides, the majority were men who had scored the lowest on the logic portion of the exam.

www.associatedcontent.com...


Intelligence can be a curse at times, but the numbers show that it's the below average in the smarts department that choose this way out.

Always hated how people referred to big bang as more than a theory
but R.I.P.

Originally posted by SmokeandShadow
You have to wonder, at 52 years old there would be a history of threats and suicide attempts if it were truly out of depression. If he had no history or underlying issues, I would be suspicious.

patient doctor confidentiality?

reply to post by anxietydisorder

Intelligence can be a curse at times, but the numbers show that it's the below average in the smarts department that choose this way out.

That is interesting, that is not what I have heard in the past, this study may have something to do with the weather there, or it may be we only hear about these type of people opposed to the everyday population.

January 16, 2004

Only the bright commit suicide
Does a controversial theory linking intelligence with suicide rates help to explain why so many scientists kill themselves?
THE PAST few months have seen a series of notable suicides by scientists. Yesterday we heard details of the strange pact in which Dr Michael Griffin and his wife Adele took their lives in a Devon hotel. Two days before that, Harold Shipman killed himself. Early this month the body of Richard Stevens, a haematologist, was found in the Lake District; we await the Hutton report into the suicide of Dr David Kelly.
These are disparate cases: no one seeks to associate a mass murderer with a blameless government scientist or a troubled consultant physician. Yet these men had things in common: they were intelligent and analytical, with similar educational backgrounds. Could there be a theme that helps to explain their suicides?

Writers, psychologists and philosophers have long argued over the reasons for suicide. The problem they all face is that statistics on the subject are notoriously slippery. Take seasonal variations. Some people claim that suicide is related to climate and light, and especially to “the winter blues”. It is true that suicidal thoughts reach a peak in January (when the Samaritans get most calls). Yet in the West the peak months for actual suicide attempts are, universally, the spring and summer months of April, May and June (the only geographical exception is the Antipodes, where suicide rates peak in their late spring: November and December).

The deeper you dig, the more confusing it gets.

www.timesonline.co.uk...['ex]

It seems there many contradictory studies out there.

reply to post by anxietydisorder



The British Medical Journal conducted one of the largest studies ever on the relevant coincidences between suicide rates and IQ test scores. The researchers found that men with exceptionally low scores were two to three times more likely to commit self-murder or suicide. The study was conducted in Sweden, which has one of the highest suicide rates in the world. One million men were tested for IQ level at age 18 when theyentered national service. These men were followed until reaching 44 years of age. During that time, 2,811 men committed suicide. Of the suicides, the majority were men who had scored the lowest on the logic portion of the exam

I'm going to have to say that those in the national service are not a general representation of the public. 18 yrs to 44 yrs also isn't a long time. Correlation doesn't mean causation. Just pointing that out; that study is pretty moot.




EDIT:

^^^
Also, hearing about the suicides of highly intelligent individuals doesn't necessarily mean they're at more risk of killing themselves. I'd have to say that you just hear more about high-profile deaths than the death of a low IQ pupil.

[edit on 29-1-2010 by Jaegernaut]

Throwing a little bit of a curve ball in here with what I'm about to say, but in matters of life and death I find an opportunity to ask hypothetical questions.

Maybe he was ready to start being "alive"?

I'll say something about myself that's somewhat personal.

I've had a number of IQ tests, plus MRIs on my brain, and one time they attached so many wire to my head I looked like I had a very colorful afro. The most recent neurological study I submitted to was done at McMaster University Medical Center. Before that I was a subject at the St. Joseph's Anxiety Disorder Dept.
The Ontario Government even sent me to a ranch with two psychiatrists to see how I interact in unfamiliar surroundings with people and animals.

I'm a bit unusual, that's why they study me, but I test high with an IQ around 140.

I also think about suicide on a daily basis.

It does allow for alot of speculation? Only time will tell.

I think that IQ is a factor, albeit small factor, that leads to suicide. Your situational context would be the main cause. Whether your rich of poor (have the capacity to educate yourself), daily emotional & sensual inputs interplay with everyone differantly and at the end of the day decide your trip through life.

Each person with an opposable thumb is given the intelligence to decide, make choices. The choices you make decide the outcome.

RIP, a theory that set a scientific and social benchmark for humanity

reply to post by anxietydisorder


Hang in anxietydisorder, you have a home here.

reply to post by jpvskyfreak


Regardless of how strange this case is, a man of great mind has died. Give thanks for his life, and mourn his death.

Good catch OP. Another highly suspicious "suicide". As a NASA JPL scientist, Lange probably had access to classified projects and raw uncensored astronomical data. If he was about to clear his schedule and go full-time whistleblower, it is no surprise that he is now dead. I doubt this guy's story will rival that of Jack Parsons', but you can never overestimate the kookiness at NASA and especially at JPL.