Lina Heider (11) ist Deutschlands jüngste Abiturientin

Unglaublich! Wünsche dem Mädchen viel Glück und Erfolg in ihrem weiteren Leben. Wann wird sie den ersten Nobelpreis gewinnen?

Isaac Newton’s beer mug resurfaces after 160 years

The secrets of a genius! 😊 I toast to that! Drink more beer!

Isaac Newton’s beer mug resurfaces after 160 years | Royal Society "A scientist and a historian have teamed up to uncork the history of a centuries-old beer mug - or flagon - once owned by Sir Isaac Newton. They also suggest his great work Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (1687) may have been written with his home-made ink in which beer was a key ingredient."

Wissenschaft und Forschung brauchen wieder mehr Freiheit für Genies

Interessanter Denkanstoß! Wahre Genies sind in der Tat sehr selten! Genies sind oft besondere Individuen, die von ihren Zeitgenossen und leider auch von vielen Kollegen missverstanden werden. Erinnert sei z.B. an das bekannte Dilemma von Genie und Wahn!

Albert Einstein ist wahrscheinlich ein gutes Beispiel! Er war ein unbekannter Autodidakt Wissenschaftler im Berner Patentamt bis zum annus mirabilis 1905.

"Die Wissenschaftspolitik ist in Aufruhr. Der Fortschritt der Wissenschaft verlangsame sich stetig. Zu diesem Schluss kommen Autoren einer Publikation in der renommierten Zeitschrift «Nature», nachdem sie über 25 Millionen wissenschaftliche Artikel und 3,9 Millionen Patente der letzten 60 Jahre ausgewertet haben. Damit haben die Autoren die Innovationskraft der Forschung erstmals umfassend untersucht. ..."

Wissenschaft und Forschung brauchen wieder mehr Freiheit Die Welt braucht neue Einsteins und Darwins: wie die Forschung wieder innovativer werden kann.
Forschung und Wissenschaft bringen immer weniger bahnbrechende Erkenntnisse hervor. Das Forschungsmanagement ist längst zum Selbstzweck geworden – auf Kosten der Innovationskraft. Wissenschaft braucht wieder mehr Freiheit.

Leonardo da Vinci's Forgotten Experiments Explored Gravity as a Form of Acceleration

Why are human geniuses so rare? How many female geniuses were overlooked, not taken seriously, or ignored?

It can take up to hundreds of years to understand them better! The contemporaries of such geniuses were and still are probably overwhelmed to keep up!

Even Leonardo da Vinci still surprises us!

From the abstract:

"Despite limited tools, Leonardo da Vinci displayed ingenious problem-solving. The authors examine a combination of Leonardo’s thought and physical experiments regarding the acceleration of falling objects. Leonardo recorded that if a water-pouring vase moves transversally (sideways), mimicking the trajectory of a vertically falling object, it generates a right (as in orthogonal) triangle with equal leg length, composed of falling material lining up diagonally (forming the hypotenuse) and the vase trajectory forming one of the legs. On the hypotenuse, Leonardo wrote “Equatione di Moti,” or equalization of motions, noting the equivalence of the two orthogonal motions, one effected by gravity and the other prescribed by the experimenter. The authors present an analytical solution using Newtonian mechanics to confirm Leonardo’s “Equivalence principle.”"

Leonardo da Vinci's Forgotten Experiments Explored Gravity as a Form of Acceleration | www.caltech.edu Engineers from Caltech have discovered that Leonardo da Vinci's understanding of gravity—though not wholly accurate—was centuries ahead of his time.

Da Vinci’s understanding of gravity was centuries ahead of his time Engineers re-created his experiment with computer modeling and found yet another surprise from the brilliant man.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Visualization of Gravity as a Form of Acceleration (no public access)

Towards The Genes Of Genius

Posted: 11/5/2019

I speculate wildly for a moment that within the next 10-30 years or so, humanity will be able to isolate the genes that gave past geniuses their mental capabilities and to be able to augment any human brain with those genes. 

Supposedly, Einstein’s brain was preserved, whole or partial. As an aside, the story behind the autopsy of Einstein’s brain is remarkable itself. Presumably, his is not the only genius brain preserved somewhere.

Mozart Was A Genius

Posted: 10/2/2014  Updated: 5/8/2015

Update 5/8/15

Just listened to Mozart’s Symphony No. 34 (1780) on Internet KMozart station. Incredible! Mozart was so gifted! I can imagine Mozart’s digit finger touching God’s finger like Michelangelo painted it in The Creation Of Adam.

Symphony No. 38

Just listened to his Symphony No. 38 on kmozart.com by the “Orch[estra] of the 18th Century/Frans Bruggen” again. This is a truly incredible piece of music! So amazing and beautiful! There is a dynamic in this music that is breathtaking and exhilarating. The optimism and the celebration of life is overwhelming. As if Mozart was a prophet of God speaking in a universal language.

Why did Mozart die so young? One may add nearly at the age of Jesus’s death. Like two men on a mission.

A Novice

I did not know much about classical music before I was at least 50 years old. Hence, the discovery of classical music late in my life is a special enjoyment. I try to listen to it as much as I can at work.

Brain Stimulation

I can certainly attest to this now that certain classical music pieces are absolutely stimulating to the brain.

A Popular Misconception About Mental Illness

Posted: 8/13/2014

Trigger

Just read “Creativity, Madness and Drugs”. An article that probably appeared in the aftermath of the recent death of Robin Williams.

A Persistent Myth In Urgent Need Of Debunking

In the first sentence, the author asserts (emphasis added):

1. “Would we have Poe’s Raven today if the tormented author had taken lithium to suppress his bipolar illness? Not likely, considering the high frequency of psychiatric illnesses among writers and artists, concluded psychiatrist Kay Jamison of Johns Hopkins Medical School speaking last week at the Society for Neuroscience annual meeting in San Diego. Madness electrifies the creative process, Jamison concluded … “
2. “Lord Tennyson, Virginia Woolf and Vincent Van Gogh are familiar examples of artists and writers who suffered serious mental illnesses, but Jamison explained that psychiatric illness was the cruel engine of their creativity. … “
3. The crash of depression ending the manic phase immerses the writer in the depths of human suffering. This infuses poets and writers with the most monumental and profound dimensions of human experiences, moving them to contemplate the meaning of life, confront the certainty of death, and struggle against the agony of despair to survive adversity.”

This is a dangerous path of thinking by so called normal, believed to be mentally healthy people! This theory presented in this article appears to be plausible, but it is absurd and inhumane!

Why would a widely believed genius afflicted by mental illness like Edgar Allen Poe not be able to do outstanding, exceptional work or dazzle us with his or her creativity even after being successfully treated. Specifically, in the case of Edgar Allen Poe, had he been helped by some treatment perhaps he would not have died at age 40 by drinking too much alcohol.

Unfortunately, it is quite possible that this misconception or myth is even reinforced by some of the afflicted.

Diagnosing Psychological Disorders In Children

Disclaimer

I have no expertise whatsoever in this area. However, I am not entirely without personal experience. Psychological disorders and their medical treatment is a subject of interest to me. Further, I am only trying to briefly summarize certain thoughts that came to me when reading various articles related to this complex subject. I have intentionally not sourced this article very well for sake of brevity and time.

An Increasing Trend

It appears there has been an increasing trend in recent decades to diagnose children with different forms of psychological disorders (e.g. ADHD, Autism, psychosis etc.). One can almost get the impression of an ongoing, unprecedented epidemy or is it a phenomenon.

I have included Autism here as well, because the unusual outward behavior and the significant expansion of its definition to autism spectrum disorder. Latter development is usually a sign that doctors are clueless when they attach terms like “spectrum”. In my opinion, there is a significant chance for misdiagnosis. Yes, the US government describes Autism on their PubMed website as “… a physical condition linked to abnormal biology and chemistry in the brain. The exact causes of these abnormalities remain unknown, but this is a very active area of research. There are probably a combination of factors that lead to autism. Genetic factors seem to be important.”. Well is this not true of other psychological disorders as well?

Possible Explanations

Doctors have over time become better in diagnosing such disorders, which have been in the past very difficult or impossible to diagnose or children went simply untreated. Latter assertion is quite true for psychology/psychiatry in general and not only in the past. Ambiguous disorders like psychological disorders are great business for doctors. To use a hyperbole, doctors since time immemorial like to expand and deepen their diagnostic tools almost to the point to declare everyone in need of medical treatment who enter their offices. Illnesses are infinite.

In recent times, more focus and money was assigned to this subject. Huge media attention has spread, parents are primed to be alert. Stigma, taboos are reduced, acceptance is improved. E.g. in the US, special needs education has proliferated receiving lots of money and special teachers. The more special needs children the better for school funding and teacher salaries.

There is the distinct possibility that a self-feeding vicious or virtuous cycle was entered in connection with this subject. And it will take perhaps decades before reasonable judgment returns.

Genius And Madness

I believe, most people have heard about the close link between genius and madness. Two recent movies “A Brilliant Beautiful Mind” (about John Nash) or “The Aviator” (about Howard Hughes) captured this topic quite well.

I highly recommend to watch both movies, in particular the first one, because it shows you how this brilliant mathematician and his wife suffered from the medications he was given and how he himself defeated the demons. The way he defeated the demons is, I believe, sometimes also prescribed by doctors even for children to learn how to cope with demons etc. in a playful way.

Children that are perceived as not “normal” may have special talents and gifts unlike other children. Early, aggressive treatment may only achieve forced conformity to “normal” and kill these special talents or gifts that would otherwise develop to the benefit of the child and the world. As they say if you can dream it you can achieve it. Vivid imagination or unusual behavior may after all be completely harmless and beneficial for the child’s development.

I am far from implying here that any child with a diagnosed or perceived psychological disorder is going to be the next genius. This would be a colossal misunderstanding.

Suggestions Or Food For Thought

Parents are naturally very concerned if they observe anything perceived to be not normal about their children. Naturally, parents seek help from a doctor. Given the great ambiguity of this subject, more than one doctor should be consulted and doctors of different specializations or of different approaches.

Keep in mind, psychology and psychiatry still remain very inexact fields of medicine. It’s more charlatanry than medicine.

It is very understandable that parents seek a rational explanation and the best medical treatment for their children, but be alert to the pitfalls. Yes, parents are very concerned about the possibly negative prospects of their child like antie social life/behavior, unsteady professional career, alcoholism, drug abuse, failed relationships, crime etc. that are commonly associated with psychological disorders. However, an overreaction to the diagnosis may have the same or similar outcome.

Depending on the severity or circumstances, I would not easily have my child being treated especially not over an extended period of time with certain psycho pharmaceutical medications, e.g. mood stabilizers, anti convulsants. Sometimes just close observation, change of daily routines, or other behavioral approaches etc. are perhaps better.

Some research seems to indicate that abnormal, psychotic like behavior in childhood disappears even without any treatment as they reach adulthood or later in life.

What are the long-term implications for our children if so many kids are classified as having a disorder and are in need of treatment? I do not mean to be in denial, but I want to caution.