A SOCIAL commentator once remarked that in every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts.
To get an insight into what this commentator was on about tune into BBC Knowledge on Thursdays for What Makes A Genius? and follow mathematics professor Marcus du Sautoy as he explores some of the myths associated with extraordinary men.
Marcus readily admits that he is no genius, but wants to know if geniuses are just an extreme version of himself - or whether their brains are fundamentally different.
Along this journey the professor meets some remarkable individuals such as an obsessive artist who uses his whole house as his canvas and a blind, autistic, pianist with apparently prodigious gifts.
He also runs across another blind woman whose brain has learnt to see using sound.
In one episode the professor is shown how babies have remarkable abilities which most of us lose as teenagers. He meets a neuroscientist who claims he has evidence of innate ability, a scientist who's identified a gene for learning, and another honorable doctor who has discovered how to sharpen the brain by electrically turbo-charging it.
Still on the subject of genius, a once-off programme on the same channel is The Genius Sperm Bank about millionaire optometrist Robert Klark Graham who felt that many intelligent people were dying childless, yet "idiots" were reproducing more and more.
He yearned to bring thousands of geniuses into the world to ensure the future of the human race.
In 1963, he decided to establish a Repository for Germinal Choice - a sperm bank stocked full of "donations" solicited from some of the world's most brilliant men.
Based in an underground bunker on his family estate near San Diego, Graham collected seed from three Nobel laureates, among others, and women whose husbands were infertile flocked to the institution when it opened in 1980.
The story is told through the eyes of the people that helped set up and manage the sperm bank, some of the recipients, and Robert Graham's lasting legacy - the sperm bank children.
It airs on January 20.
Sparks of brilliance in this TV show
A SOCIAL commentator once remarked that in every work of genius we recognise our own rejected thoughts.
To get an insight into what this commentator was on about tune into BBC Knowledge on Thursdays for What Makes A Genius? and follow mathematics professor Marcus du Sautoy as he explores some of the myths associated with extraordinary men.
Marcus readily admits that he is no genius, but wants to know if geniuses are just an extreme version of himself - or whether their brains are fundamentally different.
Along this journey the professor meets some remarkable individuals such as an obsessive artist who uses his whole house as his canvas and a blind, autistic, pianist with apparently prodigious gifts.
He also runs across another blind woman whose brain has learnt to see using sound.
In one episode the professor is shown how babies have remarkable abilities which most of us lose as teenagers. He meets a neuroscientist who claims he has evidence of innate ability, a scientist who's identified a gene for learning, and another honorable doctor who has discovered how to sharpen the brain by electrically turbo-charging it.
Still on the subject of genius, a once-off programme on the same channel is The Genius Sperm Bank about millionaire optometrist Robert Klark Graham who felt that many intelligent people were dying childless, yet "idiots" were reproducing more and more.
He yearned to bring thousands of geniuses into the world to ensure the future of the human race.
In 1963, he decided to establish a Repository for Germinal Choice - a sperm bank stocked full of "donations" solicited from some of the world's most brilliant men.
Based in an underground bunker on his family estate near San Diego, Graham collected seed from three Nobel laureates, among others, and women whose husbands were infertile flocked to the institution when it opened in 1980.
The story is told through the eyes of the people that helped set up and manage the sperm bank, some of the recipients, and Robert Graham's lasting legacy - the sperm bank children.
It airs on January 20.
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