Leonardo Lecture in Rotunda II Tales of the fifth child

Leonardo belongs to a handful of supreme geniuses, along with Archimedes, Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Newton, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Einstein... and not many more, who define entire fields. There is the "ordinary genius" (many Nobel Prize Winners in Physics, Fields Medalists, etc.) and frequently we can understand whence they come. Smart parents have smart children! There are more books in the house, intelligent conversation around the dinner table, and supportive parents. There is very little explanation for how the handful of transformative geniuses come about.

I recently gave a lecture to physicians and benefactors of the University of Virginia on Oct. 15, 2009. The setting was under the dome of the Rotunda designed by Thomas Jefferson. In the introduction to the lecture I invoked a series of tales illustrating how the transformative genius appears with little rhyme or reason. But they are the very people who define or redefine entire fields. They change the paradigm. The greatest scientist in history, Isaac Newton, virtually created classical physics; two hundred years later, Albert Einstein created a new paradigm.

My good friend and former student Keith Wamsley and I co-authored the book, Leonardo's Universe, that attempts to balance the art, science and engineering of one of the supreme geniuses of all — Leonardo da Vinci. National Geographic Books released the book in 2009, and Greg McNamee, the blog writer for Encyclopedia Britannica declared it "One of 10 must-have books for the year."

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Education

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• Universe
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[TijenArik]

An amusing recount of decisions that shaped world history.

Surely, Dr. Atalay is evidence of "terrestrial intelligence" on earth.

[bwjones1002]

Fascinating tales illustrating how we dont understand where genius comes from.