Sometimes a person's mind can be so outstanding that it will change the world. We don't know for sure why these people are superior to the rest, but science is trying to find an answer to this question.
The Mutter Museum of Medical History in Philadelphia has many special medical specimens. On the ground floor, the fused liver of 19th century Siamese twins Chang and Eng floats in a glass vessel. Nearby, visitors can gaze at the hands swollen with gout, stones in the bladder of Chief Justice John Marshall, a cancerous tumor removed from President Grover Cleveland's jaw, and a Civil War soldier's thigh bone, in which a bullet can still be seen. But there is one exhibit at the entrance that is awe-inspiring. Look closely at the booth and you will see the sweaty forehead prints left by museum visitors pressing against the glass.
The object that fascinates them is a small wooden box with 46 microscopic plates, each containing a section of Albert Einstein's brain. A magnifying glass above one of the slides reveals a piece of cloth the size of a postage stamp, its graceful branches and curves that resemble a river mouth from a bird's eye view. These remnants of the brain are mesmerizing, not least because of the amazing achievements of the famous physicist, although nothing is said about them. Other stands in the museum show illness and deviation when something went wrong. But Einstein's brain represents potential, the extraordinary abilities of the mind of one genius that surpassed so many. “He saw differently from everyone else,” says visitor Karen O'Hara, peering into the tea-colored swatch. “And he could go beyondwhat you can see and it's amazing."
Throughout human history, individuals have emerged who have made important contributions to their field of activity. Michelangelo was a genius in sculpture and painting. Marie Curie - scientific sagacity. "Genius," wrote the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer, "illuminates his era like a comet on the way to the planets." Consider Einstein's contributions to physics. With no sophisticated tools at hand other than his own thoughts, he predicted in his general theory of relativity that massive accelerating objects - like black holes orbiting one another - would ripple the surface of spacetime. It took a hundred years, a lot of computing power and extremely sophisticated technology to finally confirm his case - the physical confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves came less than two years ago.
Einstein turned our understanding of the very laws of the universe upside down. But our understanding of how his mind worked remains mundane. What differentiates his brainstorming, his thought processes, from his brilliant colleagues? What makes a genius a genius?
Philosophers have long argued about the origin of genius. Ancient Greek thinkers believed that an excess of black bile - one of the four bodily constituents of which Hippocrates spoke - endows poets, philosophers and other high souls with "the power of exaltation," says historian Darrin McMahon. Phrenologists have tried to find genius in bumps on the head; craniometers collected skulls - including the skull of the philosopher Immanuel Kant - which were then weighed, tested, measured.
None of them discovered a single source of genius, and it is unlikely, of course, that such can be found at all. The genius is too elusive, too subjective, too embedded in history to be easily distinguished. And it requires the final expression of too many features to be simplified to points, the facets of the human personality. Instead, we can try to understand it by revealing a complex of intertwined qualities - intelligence, creativity, persistence, just luck, and this is not a complete list - that create a person who can change the world.
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Intelligence is often considered the yardstick of genius - a measurable quality that leads to incredible achievement. Lewis Terman, a psychologist at Stanford University who helped invent the intelligence quotient (IQ) test, believed that such a test could reveal genius. In the 1920s, he observed more than 1,500 Californian schoolchildren with IQs above 140 - considered "genius or near-genius" - to find out how they behaved in life compared to other children. Terman and his colleagues observed participants (calling them "termites"), their lifestyle and success, documenting them in Genetic Studies of Genius notes. This group included members of the National Academy of Sciences, politicians, doctors, professors and musicians. Forty years after the start of the study, scientists have documented thousands of scientific papers and books that they published,number of patents granted (350) and stories written (about 400).
Monumental intelligence alone does not guarantee monumental achievement, as Terman and colleagues have found. Some members of the study were unable to make their way to success despite their high intelligence levels. Some were kicked out of college. Others, who were also researched, but whose IQ was not very high, became famous in their field, among them Luis Alvarez and William Shockley, Nobel laureates in physics. Charles Darwin was "the most ordinary boy with no outstanding intelligence." And already as an adult, he solved the riddle of the incredible diversity of life.
Scientific breakthroughs like Darwin's theory of evolution would have been impossible without a creative edge that no one, not even Terman, could measure. But creativity and the processes associated with it can be explained, to a certain extent, with the help of the creative people themselves. Scott Barry Kaufman, director of science at the Imagination Institute in Philadelphia, brought together people who were considered pioneers in their respective fields - like psychologist Stephen Pinker and comedian Ann Libera - to discuss their insights and insights with them. Kaufman's goal was not to find out genius - after all, he believed that the word exalted some, but belittled many others - but to develop the imagination of everyone else.
These conversations showed an important point: the flash of insight that occurs at unexpected times - in a dream, in the shower, or on a walk - often occurs after a period of contemplation. The information comes in deliberately, but the problem is handled unconsciously, allowing the solution to pop out when the mind least expects it. “Great ideas don't come when you try to focus on them,” says Kaufman.
Examining the brain can point to how these moments of insight occur. The creative process, says Rex Jung, a neuroscientist at the University of New Mexico, relies on the dynamic interplay of neural networks that work together and flow from different parts of the brain simultaneously - the right and left hemispheres, as well as areas of the prefrontal cortex. These networks provide our ability to satisfy external demands - activities that we have to do, work and pay taxes and the like - and are located mostly in the outer parts of the brain. Others cultivate internal thinking processes, including daydreaming and imagination, and extend mostly to the mid-brain region.
Jazz improvisation is a compelling example of how neural networks interact during the creative process. Charles Limb, a hearing specialist and auditory surgeon at the University of California, San Francisco, has developed a small, iron-free keyboard that can be played within an MRI scanner. Six jazz pianists were asked to play a famous part and then improvise a solo while listening to the sounds of a jazz quartet. Their scans showed that brain activity was "completely different" when the musicians improvised, Limb says. The intrinsic network associated with self-expression showed an increase in activity, while the other networks associated with focus and self-control calmed down. “It’s like the brain has disabled the ability to self-criticize,” scientists say.
This could explain the incredible level of jazz pianist Keith Jarrett. Jarrett, who was capable of improvising concerts up to two o'clock, could not explain - or rather, considered impossible - how his music was acquired. But when he sat in front of his audience, he deliberately pushes notes out of his brain, allowing his fingers to tap the keys without any external pressure. “I completely let go of consciousness,” he says. "I am driven by a force that I can only thank." Jarrett recalls one of his concerts in Munich, when he felt himself lost in the high notes of the keys. His incredible creativity, nurtured by decades of listening, learning and practicing tunes, is revealed when he has the least control over him. "This is a huge space in which the music I believe in appears."
One of the hallmarks of creativity is the ability to create connections between seemingly disparate concepts. The tight weaves between different parts of the brain provide intuitive communication between them. Andrew Newberg, director of research at the Marcus Institute for Integrative Health at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, uses diffusion tensor imaging, an MRI contrast technique that maps neural pathways in the brains of creative people. The members, who come from the Kaufman group of thinkers, take standard tests of creativity, which require them to find new uses for everyday objects like baseball bats and toothbrushes. Newberg seeks to map the connections in the brains of great thinkers to the connections in the brains of the control group to see if there is a difference in howhow different areas of their brains interact. Its ultimate goal is to scan 25 individuals in each category and then analyze the data for similarities and differences in each group. For example, will certain areas of the comedian's brain be more active than the psychologist's brain?
A preliminary comparison of one "genius" - Newberg loosely uses the word to separate participants - and one control showed an intriguing contrast. In the scan, the participant's brain was divided into red, green, and blue sections of white matter, which contain weaves that allow neurons to transmit electrical messages. The red area in each image is the corpus callosum, a bundle of over 200 million nerve fibers that connects the two hemispheres of the brain and facilitates communication between them. "The more red you see," Newberg says, "the more connective fibers there are." The difference is quite obvious: the red segment of the "genius" brain is twice as wide as the red segment of the control brain.
“This means there is more communication between the left and right hemispheres, and this would be expected in highly creative people,” Newberg says, stressing that research is still ongoing. "There is more flexibility in the thought process, more input from different parts of the brain." The green and blue areas show the connectedness of other areas, stretching from the front to the back, including dialogue between the frontal, parietal, and temporal lobes, and may reveal additional facts. Newberg has not yet undertaken to talk about what else can be learned. This is just one part.
While neuroscientists are trying to understand how the brain contributes to the development of paradigm-shifting thought processes, other scientists are wondering when and why this ability develops. Are geniuses born or made? Francis Galton, Darwin's cousin, protested against the "natural equality claim", believing genius to come from family ancestry. To prove this, he compiled genealogical trees of European leaders in industries ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Byron, Chaucer, Titus and Napoleon. In 1869, Galton published his findings in Hereditary Genius, a book that sparked the nature versus nurture controversy and spawned the infamous field of eugenics. Galton concluded that geniuses were rare, about one in a million. But what was unusual was the many examples in which “people,who were nothing of themselves, had outstanding relatives."
Advances in the study of genetics have made it possible to study human traits at the molecular level. Over the past several decades, scientists have tried to find genes associated with intelligence, behavior, and even unique qualities like perfect pitch. In the case of intelligence, this has raised ethical concerns about the potential use of the findings. It is also very difficult because there are thousands of genes involved - each with a small contribution. How about a different kind of ability? Can Perfect Hearing Be Inborn? Many outstanding musicians, including Mozart and Ella Fitzgerald, are considered to have perfect pitch, which has been instrumental in their extraordinary careers.
Genetic potential alone does not promise actual embodiment. Genius must be trained. Social and cultural influences can be the breeding ground for genius at a particular point in history: Baghdad during the Golden Age of Islam, Calcutta during the Bengal Renaissance, Silicon Valley today.
A hungry mind can also find the intellectual stimulation it needs at home - as in the case of Terence Tao in suburban Adelaide, Australia, considered one of the greatest minds currently working in mathematics. Tao demonstrated a remarkable understanding of language and numbers early in life, but his parents created an environment in which this understanding flourished. They gave him books, toys and games that encouraged him to play and learn on his own - his father Billy believed that he stimulated his son's originality and problem-solving ability. Billy and his wife Grace were also looking for additional teaching opportunities for their son as his formal education began and he was fortunate enough to find teachers who further strengthened and guided his mind. Tao entered high school at the age of seven,scored 760 in math at the age of eight, entered university at age 13, and became a professor at UCLA at age 21. "Talent is very important," he once wrote in a blog, "but more importantly, how it develops and is nurtured."
The gifts of nature and the environment of upbringing cannot nurture genius without motivation and perseverance. These personality traits, which led Darwin to spend twenty years perfecting his Origin of Species, and Indian mathematician Srinivas Ramanujan to produce thousands of formulas, inspire the work of psychologist Angela Duckworth. She believes that the combination of passion and perseverance - she calls it "core" - leads people to success. Duckworth, the MacArthur Foundation "genius" and professor of psychology at the University of Pennsylvania, says the concept of genius is too easily covered with a layer of magic, as if great achievements are born spontaneously, without hard work. She believes that there is a difference between a person's individual talent, but no matter how brilliant that talent is, persistence and discipline are extremely important to success."When you really watch someone trying to achieve something great, their efforts don't go unnoticed."
And of course, nothing happens the first time. “The first outcome measure is productivity, hard work,” says Dean Keith Simonton, emeritus professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis and longtime genius researcher. Big breakouts happen after many tries. “Most articles published in science have never been cited by anyone,” Simonton says. “Most of the songs have never been played. Most of the art has never been exhibited. Thomas Edison invented the phonograph and the first commercially viable light bulb, but they were just two of the thousands of US patents he filed.
Lack of support can stop the prospect of developing a genius; they may not get a chance to show themselves. For a long time, women were denied formal education, their achievements were understated, and their professional activities were hindered. Mozart's elder sister Maria Anna, a brilliant harpsichordist, ended her career at the behest of her father when she reached the age of marriage at 18. Half of the women in Terman's study became housewives. People born in poverty or in dire conditions don't get a chance to work on anything else other than their own survival. "If you believe that genius can be isolated, cultivated and nurtured," says historian Darrin McMahon, "what an incredible tragedy would be the premature death of a thousand geniuses, both recognized and not."
Sometimes, by sheer luck, opportunity and desire find each other. If there has ever been a man on Earth who personifies genius in every cell, it is Leonardo da Vinci. Born in 1452, Leonardo started life in a stone house in Italian Tuscany, where olive trees and dark blue clouds sheltered the Arno Valley. From the very beginning, Leonardo's intelligence and skill took off like that very comet of Schopenhauer. His breadth of ability - his creative skills, his understanding of human anatomy, his prophetic engineering skills - was unmatched.
The road to genius Leonardo began with an apprenticeship with the master of the arts Andrea del Verrocchu in Florence, when he was still a teenager. Leonardo's creative talent was so powerful that during his life he filled thousands of pages in his notebooks, produced hundreds of studies and projects, from optical to mechanical. He persisted regardless of the problem. “The obstacles do not stop me,” he wrote. Leonardo also lived in Florence during the Italian Renaissance, when art was cultivated by wealthy patrons and talent literally came from the streets, including Michelangelo and Raphael. Then art was still a craft.
Leonardo could see the impossible - hit the mark, as Schopenhauer wrote, "which others have not even seen." Today, an international group of scientists and researchers is actively studying the life of Leonardo and himself. The Leonardo Project traces the artist's genealogy and searches for DNA to find out more about the artist's pedigree and physical characteristics, to confirm the authorship of the paintings attributed to him, and, importantly, to find the keys to his unusual talents.
A member of the team working on this project, David Caramelli works in the high-tech laboratory of molecular anthropology at the University of Florence, which is located in a 16-story building with magnificent views of Florence. From there, you can see the domes of the city's cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, the tops of which were originally made by Verrocchio and lifted up by Leonardo in 1471. This juxtaposition of the past and the present is a leitmotif in the examination of ancient DNA by Caramelli. Two years ago, he published a preliminary genetic analysis of the Neanderthal skeleton. Now he's ready to apply similar techniques to Leonardo's DNA, which his team hopes to extract from biological relics - an artist's bones, a strand of hair, skin cells left over from notebooks, or even saliva.which Leonardo used to prepare the canvases.
It's an ambitious plan, but team members are optimistic. Genealogists track down Leonardo's living relatives to confirm the master's DNA if found. Physical anthropologists are trying to gain access to the remains of Leonardo, believed to be kept in the castle of Amboise in the Loire Valley in France, where he was buried in 1519. Art historians and geneticists, including Institute of Genomics specialist Craig Venter, are experimenting with methods to extract DNA from fragile Renaissance drawings and works. "The wheels were turning," says Jesse Ozubel, vice president of the Richard Lounsbury Foundation, who is coordinating the project.
One of the first tasks of the group is to explore the possibility that Leonardo's genius depended not only on his intellect, creativity and cultural environment, but also on the strength of the master's perception. "Just as Mozart had extraordinary hearing," says Ozubel, "Leonardo could have extraordinary visual acuity." Several genetic components of vision are well identified, including the genes for red and green pigments located on the X chromosome. Thomas Sakmar, a sensory neuroscientist at Rockefeller University, says scientists may well be exploring these regions of the genome to see if Leonardo had unique variations that altered his color perception and allowed him to see more shades of red and green.
The Leonardo project team does not yet know for sure where to look for answers to their questions, how to explain Leonardo's incredible ability to recognize birds on the fly. “He was like taking freeze-frame stroboscopic photos,” Sakmar says. "It may well be that certain genes were linked to this."
Seeking to uncover the origin of genius may never lead to results. Like the Universe, human genius excites us and at the same time hides its secrets.
ILYA KHEL