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Why was Albert Einstein so brilliant? He had a superhighway running through the center of his noggin. (Associated Press)
The Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation recently came out with this year's "genius grants." There's a new movie about another genius, Steve Jobs. It's time for you to get smart, unless you already know these 10 facts about geniuses:
1. "Genius" is a vague, debatable term. But in the 1920s, Stanford professor Edward Terman used IQ scores to select more than 1,000 children as subjects in his Genetic Study of Genius. The participants — nicknamed "Termites" — have generally remained unidentified.
But among them were Edward Dmytryk, who directed the film "The Caine Mutiny," and Norris Bradbury, who ran the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Two children whose IQ scores didn't meet Terman's standards were William Shockley and Luis Alvarez. Those rejects grew up to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
But among them were Edward Dmytryk, who directed the film "The Caine Mutiny," and Norris Bradbury, who ran the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Two children whose IQ scores didn't meet Terman's standards were William Shockley and Luis Alvarez. Those rejects grew up to win the Nobel Prize in Physics.
2. Shortly after Albert Einstein died on April 18, 1955, his brain was sliced and diced and photographed in an effort to see what made him so darn smart. But it wasn't until 2010 that newly rediscovered photos and advances in brain research offered some answers to that question. Certain sections of Einstein's brain were more developed, and it had more wrinkles and loops and ridges — which is good in a brain — but the key may have been his huge corpus callosum, the dense network of nerve fibers that connects the different areas of the brain.
Einstein, as it turns out, had a superhighway running through the center of his noggin, likely explaining his astonishing creativity and genius.
Einstein, as it turns out, had a superhighway running through the center of his noggin, likely explaining his astonishing creativity and genius.
3. Vivien Thomas, a 19-year-old black man in Nashville, Tenn., found his hopes of going to college dashed by the Depression in 1930. So he took a job as a lab assistant to white surgeon Alfred Blalock of Vanderbilt University. Despite Thomas' lack of higher education, he became a brilliant surgical technician and research partner who helped Blalock develop pioneering methods of treating shock and operating on the heart.
Yet for years Thomas was classified as a janitor and paid at that level when he was doing the equivalent of postgraduate work. Thomas even worked as a bartender at Blalock's parties to earn extra money. Ultimately, Thomas' vital role in the medical breakthroughs was widely recognized, and he received an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1976.
Yet for years Thomas was classified as a janitor and paid at that level when he was doing the equivalent of postgraduate work. Thomas even worked as a bartender at Blalock's parties to earn extra money. Ultimately, Thomas' vital role in the medical breakthroughs was widely recognized, and he received an honorary doctorate from Johns Hopkins in 1976.
4. Eureka moments are strokes of genius that have produced a number of scientific breakthroughs, including Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin and Philo Farnsworth's invention of the television. When Swiss inventor George de Mestral pulled burrs from his dog in 1941, his aha moment not only eventually gave the world Velcro, but also one of the first examples of biomimetics, or biological mimicry.
5. When Polish physicist and chemist Marie Sklodowska married Frenchman Pierre Curie and became "Madame Curie," she handled the grocery shopping and cooking with scientific precision. But the woman who would win two Nobel Prizes was confused by a recipe and had to ask her sister a difficult question: What exactly is a "pinch"?
Marie Curie, center, is seen with her two daughters, Irene and Eve, in this undated photograph. The physicist and chemist known as "Madame Curie" won two Nobel Prizes but reportedly didn't understand a common kitchen measurement. (Chicago Tribune)
6. Hedy Kiesler Markey received a patent in 1942 for her work with George Antheil to develop a frequency-hopping technique allowing radio-controlled torpedoes to avoid detection and jamming. The technological advance had major implications beyond World War II, fostering development of wireless communications. Markey was brilliant in another field as well, performing in movies under the name Hedy Lamarr.
7. It seemed like a great idea: a Nobel Prize sperm bank. But the 1980 brainchild of Robert K. Graham, who made millions off shatterproof plastic eyeglasses, quickly ran into trouble when he announced that the first Nobelist to donate was none other than William Shockley, an inventor of the transistor and also a notorious racist who promoted voluntary sterilization for less-intelligent people.
Though it survived until 1999 and produced 215 babies, the Repository for Germinal Choice, as the bank was officially known, couldn't shed the taint it was a Nazi-like scheme to create a master race. It also never persuaded more than a few Nobelists to donate. The bank's operations couldn't have instilled great confidence either. The catalog used colors to mask donor identities but was rife with misspellings. How could a prospective mother envision her own baby Einstein coming from a donor named Corral, Turquois and Fucshia?
8. Hungarian physician Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis had a controversial medical theory that many of his fellow doctors refused to accept. Frustrated, Semmelweis lashed out publicly and was fired from his job. Ultimately, he was committed to a mental asylum, where the guards reportedly beat him and he died in 1865. Semmelweis' unpopular brainstorm: that doctors should wash their hands before treating patients.
9. If you find yourself a bit bored at your next meeting of Mensa International, the club for people with IQs in the highest 2 percent, maybe it's time to apply to the Top One Percent Society or even the Triple Nine Society, representing the 99.9th percentile. If that proves less than stimulating, you may be ready for the Prometheus Society, which restricts membership to the 99.997th percentile and up, or the Mega Society, for those with an IQ of 176 or more, the top 99.9999th percentile of the population. Then again, being a genius, you know there are serious doubts about the accuracy of tests trying to measure IQs above 140.
10. Physicist Tsung-Dao Lee has wrestled with such complex issues as parity violation and nontopological solitons, but when the Columbia University professor shared the 1957 Nobel Prize, his favorite Chinese restaurant in New York put up a sign with a simple explanation for his triumph: "Eat here, win Nobel Prize."
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