The kind of kids who can put any adult to shame... Read more...

Willie Mosconi - professional billiards at age 6

William Joseph Mosconi was a famous American billiard player from Philadelphia. His father was the owner of a billiard room, but did not allow the child to play, so the boy literally trained on tomatoes, and instead of a cue he used a mop handle.

The father soon noticed that his son was showing success, and began to organize exhibition tournaments in which his son had to stand on a stool to see what was happening on the table. At the same time, he almost always beat older players.

In 1919, an exhibition competition was held between six-year-old Willie and the reigning world champion, Ralph Greenleaf. Ralph won, but Willie's brilliant play opened the way for him to professional billiards. From 1924, at the age of 11, William regularly staged performances demonstrating his elegant trick shots.

Later, between 1941 and 1957, he held the world title in the BCA World Championship 15 times in a row. The number of various records related to billiards and set by William Mosconi would take a long time to list, but I will only say that the record for continuous scoring of balls (consecutive balls) performed by him is 526! That is, he pocketed 526 balls continuously and without errors...

The smartest person in the world is child prodigy Kim Ung-Yong. University in 4 years

The Korean miracle child was born in 1962 and still holds the Guinness World Record for having the highest IQ of 210.

At the age of 4, the boy could read Japanese, Korean, German and English. When he was 5 years old, Kim solved a complex system of probabilistic differential equations (after university I don’t remember what it is..).

He was then invited to appear on Japanese television, where he demonstrated his knowledge of Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese, Tagalog (Filipino), German, English and Korean. From the ages of 3 to 6, Kim was a student at Hanyang University; at the age of 7, he received an offer to work for NASA. There, at the age of 15, he received a doctorate in physics from Colorado State University and worked in the United States until 1978.

After this, Kim returned to Korea with the intention of pursuing civil engineering and construction. To do this, he defended his doctoral dissertation on this subject, after which he was invited to the most famous Korean university, which he refused, preferring to work at a provincial university. Since 2007, he has also worked as an assistant at Chungbuk National University. Kim Ung-Yong is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the smartest person in the world, his IQ = 210

Gregory Smith - Nobel Prize at age 12

Born in 1990, Gregory Smith learned to read at the age of two and entered university at age 10. To his credit, the boy not only studies the exact sciences, but also travels the world as an activist for the protection of children's rights. Gregory is the founder of International Youth Advocates, which works to promote understanding among children around the world (I wonder how?)

The gifted boy was honored with a conversation with Bill Clinton and Mikhail Gorbachev, and also made a speech from the podium at one of the UN meetings.

For his work, he was nominated four times for the Nobel Prize, although he never received it. His most recent achievements include obtaining a driver's license.

Akrit Jaswal - 7 year old surgeon

Akrit Yaswal was born in India, where he is called the smartest, as his IQ reaches 146, which is an excellent result in a competition of a billion people (the country's population).

Akrit attracted public attention in 2000, when he accidentally performed his first “surgical” operation. He was seven years old, his patient, a neighbor girl, was eight. Due to the burn, the girl could not unclench her fist, and Akrit, without special medical skills, was able to carry out the necessary actions and returned mobility to his eight-year-old patient’s fingers.

After this incident, the boy went to study as a doctor at Chandigarh College and is now the youngest student among all in Indian universities.

Cleopatra Stratan is the youngest pop star on the planet. Charges 1000 euros per performance

Cleopatra was born in October 2002 in Chisinau in the family of singer Pavel Stratan. Surprisingly, in her case, her genes and talent have developed in such a way that the girl is the youngest performer to achieve commercial success after the release of the album La vârsta de trei ani ("At the age of 3 years").

At her more than young age, she has the experience of performing for two hours in front of a large audience in a concert hall, receives money for it, and received an MTV award as the youngest performer.

Aelita Andre - two-year-old artist

Aelita is a celebrity among certain circles of connoisseurs of abstract painting; she began to “create” her works when she was not yet two years old. It is clear that we are not talking about landscapes, but she is good at abstract art, like all children

One day, the director of the Brunswick Street Gallery in Melbourne, Mark Jamieson, at a meeting with one of the photographers, saw photographs of works by an author unknown to him, and agreed to include them in the program of the annual exhibition. Booklets were printed and advertisements were given in specialized magazines.

When the machine was started, he learned that the author of the paintings was the photographer’s daughter, two-year-old Aelita. The director was, of course, shocked, but it was decided not to change the exhibition program, and the paintings of the young talent were released.

Schoolboy who taught at Harvard - child prodigy Saul Aaron Kripke

Saul Aaron Kripke was born in New York in 1940 - in the family of a rabbi.

In elementary school, Saul managed to study a full course of algebra, geometry and philosophy. His life is a series of unexpected insights and discoveries.

In the fourth grade of school, he took an algebra course, and by the end of junior school he had completed the study of geometry and philosophy. During his teenage years, Saul wrote a series of papers that changed the course of teaching modal (formal) logic, which led to the fact that the gifted teenager received an offer to work from Harvard. Like an obedient Jewish boy, Saul wrote back: “Mom says I have to finish school and college first.”

After graduating from school, Saul still went to study at Harvard. Cyle Kripke is the winner of the Schock Prize, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in philosophy, and is now considered one of the most prominent living philosophers.

Michael Kevin Kearney - university at age 10

24-year-old Michael Kearney is known as the youngest graduate of the university - he was only 10 years old at that time. In addition, in 2008, he won a million dollars in the show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.”

Kevin was born in 1984, has set many intellectual records in his life and has been working as a college teacher since the age of 17. The boy said his first words at 4 months, at 6 months he said at a pediatrician’s appointment “I have an infection in my left ear” (I’m sure the doctor fainted), and learned to read at the age of 10 months.

When Michael was 4 years old, he passed the Johns Hopkins precocious math program. At the age of 6, Kevin graduated from high school, entered Santa Rosa Junior College, and at the age of 10 he graduated with a degree in geology and archeology.

Michael entered the Guinness Book of Records as the youngest university graduate to receive a bachelor's degree in archaeology. He also holds the record for being the youngest graduate student (at that age, I personally only pulled girls’ pigtails at school and was in 3rd grade). In 2006, Michael became famous around the world after winning the game "Gold Rush" and winning $1 million.

Fabiano Luigi Caruana - chess grandmaster at age 14

Fabiano, at 16 years old, is a grandmaster and chess celebrity, and has honorary citizenship in Italy and the United States.

In 2007, at the age of 14 years and 11 months, Fabiano received the title of grandmaster, becoming the youngest chess master in the United States and Italy. In April 2009, according to FIDE, he has a rating of 2649 points, which is the highest in the world among players under 18 years of age.

Humanity has existed for many thousands of years, and among ordinary people there are prodigies, and today I will tell you about those 5 human individuals that stood out the most among the rest:

• In fifth place is Pablo Picasso(Pablo Picasso, photo above). He learned to draw before he could speak. Although school subjects were difficult for him, by the age of 12 he reproduced nature on canvas so realistically and masterfully that he was considered a mature artist. He completed the exams for the School of Art in one day, and brilliantly, when it took ordinary students a month. At the age of 16 he already had his first exhibition, and at 20 he was famous throughout the world!

• Okita Souji(Okita Soji), this name is not as famous as those around him, because this prodigy from Japan is in a slightly different field, no one could beat him. He lived in the mid-19th century, by the age of 9 he had mastered combat sabers to perfection, and at 12 he easily defeated the then famous fencing master. In Japan, it is still embodied in comics, video games and films.

• Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart(Wolfgang Theophilus Mozart) is not only one of the greatest composers of all time, but also the most famous child prodigy in the entire history of the world. At the age of 4 he played the piano masterfully, at 5 he wrote his own musical plays, at 8 he completed his first symphony!

Every now and then news appears on the Internet or on TV screens about children who are not like everyone else. As soon as they get out of the children's cradle, they begin to amaze those around them with their extraordinary talents. At the age of 4, they are already fluently reading books in different languages, and at 6, as if playing, they make a scientific discovery, which for many hundreds of years the great gray minds never reached. At 11, they enter college and receive Nobel Prizes and awards. The whole world talks about them, they are child prodigies, children with unique characteristics.

Amazing - nearby

Humanity is constantly in search of the unknown. We are looking for extraterrestrial intelligence on distant planets, expecting that it will share its innermost secrets with us and help us make the greatest discoveries. But how do we behave when that same mind, superior to the usual average, suddenly appears before us in the guise of ourselves? What do we know about mystery children? Perhaps the only thing is that child prodigies are natural. The level of intellectual development of such children is much higher than that of their peers. This allows them to develop rapidly and already at a young age make a lot of discoveries or reach certain heights. Famous child prodigies are the treasure of the nation. But few adults are able to admit that we not only cannot explain the phenomenon of the birth of such babies, but we do not even know how to properly communicate with such miracle children.

They are

For some reason, we often hear about child prodigies appearing in England, China, India or any other country. Children with high IQs at a young age become professors and challenge Einstein's theories, play the violin and search for a cure for cancer, create nuclear reactors and multiply six-digit numbers in their heads. But for some reason we rarely read and learn that child prodigies are appearing in the post-Soviet space. Are children with “non-childish minds” not born among us? Not at all, for some reason they just aren’t talked about enough.

Geniuses from the cradle

They are not often talked about today, but according to statistics, they exist in every school and in almost every class. Officially, there is an opinion that information about them is not made public only because excessive attention from the press and the masses can negatively affect the child’s psyche. Whether this is true or not, one can only guess. One of the influencing factors is the fact that such children, after finishing school or even before that, go to other countries to receive education. Of course, there are child prodigies in Russia, examples are known to many. It is quite possible to get information about them, but it would be much better if they were given due attention in the media news.

Young talents

Each child prodigy manifests itself at a different stage of life. Some people begin to “act” when they are very young, while others are older, at school age. Each of them has their own preferences, some write poetry, while others work in a scientific laboratory. There are still child prodigies in Russia today; the examples given below will introduce us to them better.

Nika Turbina

Perhaps one of the most famous Soviet child prodigies is Nika Turbina. This is a girl poet, her first book “Draft” was translated into 12 languages ​​and had a circulation of 30,000 copies. They found out about her all over the world, at that time Nika was only 9 years old. She played roles in films, and after that the film “Nika Turbina: The Story of Flight” was made about her.

Andrey Khlopin

At 10 years old A ndrey explained how “noctilucent clouds” appear, and this remained a mystery to scientists for many years. For his hypothesis, a boy from Krasnodar was included in the Book. Another example of the fact that there are child prodigies in Russia.

Afanasy Prokhorov

Theater artist, dancer, pianist and singer, and he is only 12 years old! He performs classical works in 6 languages, has repeatedly taken first place in international competitions, and performs at charity concerts. The boy is originally from Moscow, but in 2007 he left for America, and today he is already gaining recognition there.

Dasha Baldenkova

She is only 18, but she already works in a research and educational laboratory at the center for applied nanoelectronics. Daria is a multiple winner of competitions and Olympiads. She won two semi-finals of the world's main competition for school students, Intel ISEF. It should be noted that many Nobel Prize laureates have already emerged from its finalists.

Here are just a few stories about what child prodigies do and work on. Of course, a variety of examples can be given, there are many of them.

They made history

Few people know that many famous Russian people were geniuses from birth. Some were able to prove themselves and went down in history, some were forgotten after a while, while others simply remained unrecognized. Child prodigies have been born in Russia since ancient times, but this is what they began to call them relatively recently. These are Pushkin and Griboyedov, Lermontov and Peter I, as well as Boris Godunov and Tyutchev, Chukovsky, Gogol, Blok and many dozens of others.

The smartest man who ever lived on our planet is William James Sidis. His IQ reached about 300 units, at a time when intelligence ranges from 80 to 100. He was born in 1921 in the USA, in the family of Boris Sidis, a Jewish immigrant from Ukraine. He received such an unusual name in honor of the American philosopher, who later became the boy’s godfather. William knew more than 40 languages ​​(according to unofficial data, about 200), graduated with honors from Harvard at the age of 16, was the author of 4 books at the age of eight, and learned to write before he was 1 year old. He studied psychology, history and the science of the evolution and development of the Universe, and wrote scientific treatises that are only today recognized by science. What’s most interesting is that he worked as a simple accountant in a small office and was terrified that someone would find out about his “talent.”

After

From all over the world, news is heard that child prodigies are appearing. The examples of their lives and incredible abilities most likely prepare us for the fact that humanity will soon move to a radically new level of its development. What this will lead to and what our life will be like in a couple of hundred years, we can only imagine.

Prodigies are usually children under 15 years of age who, despite their young age, have already achieved recognition and sometimes outstanding results. In science and art - mathematics, music, poetry - the names of child prodigies are known throughout the world. But sports are no exception.

Thus, the American Gertrude Ederle set a world record in freestyle swimming at the age of 12 (1919). At the same age, Chinese Fu Mingxia became the world champion in platform diving (1991). And the youngest Olympic champions were divers - 13-year-old American women: Madgerie Gestring won in 1936, and 20 years later Patricia McCormick won two golds at once. Well, 8-year-old Joy Foster, the Jamaican table tennis champion, was even awarded an international award in 1958...

Football

Among football prodigies, the first place goes to Pele, who at the age of 15 played for the famous Santos, and two years later became the world champion as part of the Brazilian team. Eduard Streltsov also started his career early: at 16 he played for Torpedo, at 18 for the USSR national team. Unfortunately, his fate was not as successful as that of the Brazilian football player. And here is an example from the 21st century - 17-year-old goalkeeper Igor Akinfeev played in CSKA, which became the champion of Russia in 2003. Soon he won other titles: winner of the UEFA Cup, Cup and Super Cup of the country. Now Igor is the main goalkeeper of the Russian national team.

Gymnastics

Romanian Aurelia Dobre was only 14 years old when she won the 1987 World Women's Artistic Gymnastics Championships. The famous Nadia Comaneci from Romania, Soviet gymnasts Nellie Kim, Olga Bicherova, Olga Korbut won prestigious competitions, including the Olympic Games, in 13-14. The youngest world champion in gymnastics among men - in 1983 - was Dmitry Bilozerchev: he was only 16.

Figure skating

Norwegian Sonja Henie first participated in the Olympic Games at age 11, and at age 15, in 1928, she won Olympic gold. Only in Nagano 1998 this record was broken by another American - Tara Lipinski, who won the gold medal two months earlier.

Tennis

In tennis, many world stars - Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Jennifer Capriati - won Grand Slam tournaments at the age of 15-16. A long time ago, in 1887, 15-year-old Charlotte Dodd became the winner of one of the first Wimbledons. But 17-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova, who won this prestigious tournament almost 120 years later, in 2004, can also be considered a tennis prodigy. And the youngest Wimbledon winner, Boris Becker from Germany, also distinguished himself at 17 years old.

From weightlifting to lightweight

In those sports where agility and flexibility are most important, it is easier for young people to prove themselves. But where remarkable physical strength and endurance, and sometimes decent weight are required, it is more difficult to achieve early success. However, there are plenty of exceptions here too... Bulgarian Naim Suleimenov, at the age of 15, set two world records in weightlifting (1983). William Guy Fisk, as a member of the US team at the age of 16, won the five-man bobsleigh competition at the 1928 Olympic Games in St. Moritz. The youngest Olympic champions in athletics are girls: American Barbara Jones won the 4x100 m relay in Helsinki 1952 at age 15, and German Ulrika Meyfarth won the high jump in Munich 1972 at age 16.

Basketball and hockey

The youngest world champion in game sports, along with Pele, is Lithuanian Arvydas Sabonis - the basketball genius also won the world championship with the USSR national team at the age of 17. Among the hockey players, the legendary goalkeeper Vladislav Tretyak stood out: already at the age of 16 he defended the goal of the team of masters.

Golf

American Tiger Woods amazed everyone almost from the cradle. He was about a year old when he hit the ball with a club for the first time, at 2 years old he could play several holes, at 7 he beat golfers twice his age, and already at 16 he reached the world level.

Chess

There are plenty of geeks here. It is not surprising: the game contains elements of science and art, and it is in these areas of creativity that young geniuses especially often appear... Thus, the American Samuel Reshevsky learned to play at the age of 5, and at 9 he was already touring European capitals with simultaneous playing sessions. The prodigies, or rather child prodigies, were the sisters Zsuzsa, Sophie and Judit from the wonderful Hungarian Polgar family. Judit especially distinguished herself: at the age of 15, like Fischer, she became a grandmaster (among men!). At the age of 14, Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomarev, Hungarian Peter Leko, Frenchman Etienne Bacrot and Azerbaijani Teymur Radjabov became grandmasters. Chinese Xiangzhi Bu and Norwegian Magnus Carlsen won this title at the age of 13, and Ukrainian Sergei Karjakin - at 12...

OUR EXPERT

In my memory, only a few football players withstood heavy loads, making it into the main team at a very young age. If from birth she did not reward the athlete with excellent health, high speed, and an impenetrable psyche, then he will soon disappear into the crowd of his kind. I won’t name names, but how many players are being born before our eyes and immediately disappear into the unknown! All you can hear is the exclamations of commentators about the rise of some star. So what then?.. And one more thing: in my time, of course, there was no such freedom and temptations in life. Today you rarely hear of mentors communicating with players off the field, organizing common events, guiding players at an early age in the right direction...

The most famous child prodigy

The phenomenon of child prodigies has been known since ancient times. In all centuries, there were children who were able to surprise their contemporaries with their unique talents. What kind of phenomenon is this when intellectual development is far ahead of physical development: an anomaly, a pattern, or a gift of nature?

Christian Friedrich Heineken, known as the Baby from Lübeck (Germany), is the most amazing of all known child prodigies. The baby lived a little more than four years (February 6, 1721 - June 27, 1725), but to this day he remains unsurpassed in terms of achievements.

Historians confirm this with facts. At the age of 10 months, Christian Friedrich began to repeat the words spoken by his parents - artist and architect Paul Heineken and art store owner and alchemist Katharina Elisabeth. His nanny, Sophie Hildebrant, whom contemporaries called “a soldier in a skirt” for her sergeant-major manners, helped the child to understand the world.

Sophie abruptly snatched the baby from the cradle, brought it to the paintings placed around the house, and repeated:
- This is a horse, a pet. This is a tower with lights, called a lighthouse. This is a ship that sails on the sea. Now I will point my finger, and you will tell me what it is...

Surprisingly, Heineken Jr. spoke without hesitation what he had just heard. When the nanny's primitive knowledge was exhausted, the governess Madame Adelsmann was sent out of Silesia. She had to, as Heineken Sr. said, “polish this gem.”

Amazing Breakthroughs

After another 2-3 months, when an ordinary child clearly pronounces “mom” and “dad,” Christian Friedrich knew the main events from the first five books of the Bible. By the age of two, he could not only reproduce the facts of biblical history, but also quoted entire fragments of Holy Scripture in which they were mentioned. A year later, the boy added world history and geography to his knowledge, combining this with the study of Latin and French, mathematics and biology. In his fourth year he began to study the history of the church and religion.

It seemed that the baby knew everything in the world. His fame spread with incredible speed. Therefore, the students of the Lübeck gymnasium were not too surprised when the boy took a seat at the department to give a lecture. Among the audience was Johann Heinrich von Seelen, rector of the Lübeck gymnasium. He recalled the day on January 2, 1724, when he was lucky enough to plunge into the “encyclopedic carousel”, which was spun in front of the audience by a child prodigy.

The boy began by analyzing the biographies of Roman and German emperors - from Caesar and Augustus to Constantine, Ptolemy and Charlemagne. Then he smoothly moved on to the Israeli kings, and from them to the peculiarities of the geography of Germany. I finished with a story about the structure of the human skeleton, having previously depicted the bones. All this was linked by a strict logical chain, although the facts were from different eras and fields of knowledge. “The audience sat spellbound, everyone opened their mouths,” von Seelen wrote in his diary. “But the baby suddenly fell silent when he heard the bell: “Now excuse me, gentlemen, I have to go to the nurse!”

It seems that he carries the whole world in his head, - scientists, common people, and church authorities said with superstitious fear. - Knowledge comes so easily to him!

But the brilliant child loved only one book - the richly illustrated tome in Latin “The World of Sensual Things in Pictures” by the humanist and father of pedagogy John Amos Comenius. It was the encyclopedia of that time.

Delight, delight...

Workers of literature and art seemed to be racing to perpetuate the glory of the baby from Lübeck during his lifetime. Composer from Hamburg Georg Philipp Telemann dedicated several works to him, including literary ones. He specially arrived in Lubeck to meet the child prodigy, after which he said:
“Truly, if I were a pagan, I would kneel and bow my head before this child!”

Telemann is the author of a poetic dedication, which was subsequently placed under a portrait of the baby written by his mother: “A child who has never been born before, you are the one whom our world is unlikely to comprehend in the future, you are our eternal treasure. The world will not believe your knowledge, partially comprehending it little by little. And we don’t understand you yet; we ourselves don’t understand your secret.”

Even Immanuel Kant was involved in the process of glorification, calling the young talent “a prodigy of an early mind from an ephemeral existence.”

Communication with mom

A child of genius could recite all the psalms, explain the characteristics of all known varieties of Mosel wine, and reproduce the family trees of the most prominent families in Europe. But holding the pen for several hours a day became a monstrous burden for the baby. Therefore, his own words sometimes sounded like a sentence.

Madam,” he addressed his mother, “I want to go to Denmark to hand over to the good King Frederick detailed sea maps, which I am ready to draw with my own hands.

She answered in the same tone as her son:
- My child, your desire is laudable, but your strength is not yet enough to hold a pen in your hands.
- Don’t worry, madam, the Lord God is merciful, he will give me the strength to draw maps and cross the sea. The main thing is your permission.

Agree, such verbal passages would look natural at the court of the monarch, but not at home.

"Miraculum" from high lips

Christian's parents wanted the whole world to know about the little genius. Therefore, they organized meetings with everyone who was interested in the boy. Rumors of the miracle reached King Frederick IV of Denmark. He was known as a distrustful man. He did not believe it when he was told that a three-year-old child was fluent in four languages, while the king had little knowledge of his native Danish language and had difficulty signing his name. It was decided to take the baby to Copenhagen.

Young Heineken gave several lectures on history to the king and courtiers, with references to authoritative sources, for which he was immediately awarded the nickname Mirakulum (translated from Latin as “miracle”). The only thing the baby refused was to dine with the king. He explained as politely as possible that he did not eat anything except cereals and dishes made from grain and flour.

The Fatal Role of the Nurse

The king was amazed again. But they whispered to him: feeding the baby is entrusted to the “soldier in a skirt.” From birth, the nurse taught the baby that, as a true Christian, he should not eat animal products. The suggestion was so strong that the boy simply could not be at the family table when the family put fish or meat dishes in front of them.

In fact, it was the monotonous diet that ruined him. The baby, for no apparent reason, fell on the bed and moaned from muscle pain, refusing to eat. He suffered from insomnia and lack of appetite. In addition, he had a hard time withstanding any smells or sounds, and demanded that his hands be constantly washed and not be disturbed with requests and visits. Experts say: these are typical symptoms of celiac disease - a disease caused by damage to the villi of the small intestine by certain foods containing certain proteins - gluten (gluten).

By the way, in Copenhagen, court doctors, not knowing about such a disease as celiac disease, tried to feed the baby a little differently than what the “soldier in a skirt” prescribed. They gave him light soup, beer and sugar. They told their mother about their suspicions: the cause of the health disorder was an imbalanced diet, and Sophie was solely to blame. But the mother, in order not to “upset Sophie,” whom the baby passionately and sincerely loved, again switched him to porridge.

Died as a philosopher

The journey to the Danish throne and back took several months. Only on October 11, 1724, he and his relatives arrived home. A period began, as the Lübeck doctors noted, of progressive weakness of the body, intense dry throat and headaches, insomnia and lack of appetite. On June 16, 1725, Christian's health condition deteriorated sharply, his face became covered with swelling.

A severe attack of allergies followed: the digestive system rebelled against everything that contained flour. One day, when the boy’s feet were being treated with herbs, he said: “Our life is like smoke.” Afterwards, he sang several of the 200 church songs he knew, interweaving his voice into the chorus of those who sat next to his crib and said prayers.

The baby died with the words: “Jesus God, take my spirit...” His older brother Carl Heinrich Heineken, who became a famous art critic and collector, said that he was haunted all his life by the fact that the baby, at the age of 4, met death with the calmness of a philosopher . For two weeks, the coffin with Christian Heineken, whose forehead was decorated with a laurel wreath, stood open. The most famous people from the north of Europe visited Lübeck to bid farewell to the young genius.

Children "not from this pack"

Every child prodigy has something of Christian Heineken in him. He is related to Akrit Yasual by his knowledge of anatomy, since at the age of seven the Indian boy performed his first surgical operation. John Stuart Mill, a famous 19th-century philosopher and economist, could read Greek at age three. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart became a virtuoso pianist by the age of four. William James Sidis mastered reading and writing at the age of one and a half years and wrote four books by the age of eight.

Perhaps Christian would have become the youngest academician of that time if he had not listened to his nurse. Or maybe he would have suffered the same fate as the young poetess Nika Turbina, who dictated poems to her mother from the age of 4. Having matured, Nika ceased to be a “little Russian miracle”, and her life became like a bad dream: alcohol, drugs, suicide attempts and tragic death.

If a child understands from the cradle that he is different from others, this will inevitably distance him from society. In addition, this exclusivity is often emphasized by parents. In many cases, child prodigies were literally tortured to death by work (and in Christian's case, by visits) and did not know the joys of childhood. This creates a psychological impasse, from which not every young talent can escape. It sounds blasphemous, but perhaps celiac disease, unexplored at the time, saved the baby from Lübeck from the severe disappointment that would inevitably bring him world fame.