Geniuses and Better Parenting 背景知识(background info)

1. Einstein: The German-American physicist Albert Einstein, born in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879 and died in Princeton, New Jersey, the U.S., on April 18, 1955, is undoubtedly one of the most fascinating and influential figures of the modern era. As a preeminent physicist, he radically transformed our understanding of the universe. As an ardent humanist, he took an active and outspoken stance on the significant political and social issues of his time. Albert Einstein’s contribution to modern physics is simply unique. His scientific career was a constant quest for the universal and immutable laws which govern the physical world. His theories spanned the fundamental questions of nature, from the very large to the very small, from the cosmos to sub-atomic particles. He overturned the established concepts of time and space, energy and matter. Einstein played a crucial role in establishing the two pillars of 20th century physics: he was the father of the theory of relativity and a major contributor to the quantum theory. For more information about Einstein, check out the websites at http://www.albert-einstein.org and http://www.westegg.com/einstein.


2. Picasso: Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881. By the age of 15 he was already technically skilled in drawing and painting. Picasso’s highly original style continuously evolved throughout his long career, expanding the definition of what art could be. In addition to painting, he would explore sculpture, ceramics and other art forms, and became one of the most influential artists of the 1900s. Paintings from Picasso's blue period (1901－1904) depict forlorn people painted in shades of blue, evoking feelings of sadness and alienation. After his move to Paris in 1904, Picasso's rose period paintings took on a warmer and more optimistic mood. In 1907 he and French painter George Braque pioneered cubism. By 1912 Picasso was incorporating newspaper print, postage stamps and other materials into his paintings. This style is called collage. By the late 1920s he turned toward a flat, cubist-related style. During the 1930s his paintings became militant and political. Guernica (1937), a masterpiece from this period depicts the terror of the bombing of the town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. Following World War II, Picasso's work became less political and more gentle. He spent the remaining years of his life in an exploration of various historical styles of art, making several reproductions of the work of earlier artists. Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home, Notre-Dame-de-Vie in Mougin, France. He was buried on April 10 at his castle Vauvenagues, 170 kilometers from Mougin. To learn more about Picasso (including online exhibition of his paintings), please log on to the websites at http://www.picasso.fr/anglais/, http://www.picasso.com and http://www.tamu.edu/mocl/picasso/.


3. Mozart: born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria and died on December 5, 1791. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is probably the greatest genius in Western musical history. Mozart began writing minuets at the age of 5, and by the time of his death at age 35, he had produced 626 cataloged works including nearly 50 symphonies, 20 operas, and 23 piano concertos. His beautifully constructed works, including the famous last symphonies and the operas The Marriage of Figaro (1786), Don Giovanni (1787), and The Magic Flute (1791), are ranked among the most perfect compositions. For more information about Mozart, check out the website at http://www.mozartproject.org. You can listen to Mozart's music at http://www.classicalmidiconnection.com/cmc/mozart.html.




4. Karl Friedrich Gauss: Born on 30 April 1777 in Brunswick, Germany and died on 23 February 1855 in Göttingen, Germany, Karl Friedrich Gauss is noted for his wide-ranging contributions to physics, particularly the study of electromagnetism. At the age of 17 Gauss became interested in mathematics and attempted a solution of the classical problem of constructing a regular heptagon, or seven-sided figure, with ruler and compass. He not only succeeded in proving this construction impossible, but went on to give methods of constructing figures with 17, 257, and 65,537 sides. In so doing he proved that the construction, with compass and ruler, of a regular polygon with an odd number of sides was possible only when the number of sides was a prime number of the series 3, 5, 17, 257, and 65,537 or was a multiple of two or more of these numbers. With this discovery he gave up his intention to study languages and turned to mathematics. He studied at the University of Göttingen from 1795 to 1798; for his doctoral thesis he submitted a proof that every algebraic equation has at least one root, or solution. This theorem, which had challenged mathematicians for centuries, is still called “the fundamental theorem of algebra”. His volume on the theory of numbers, Disquisitiones Arithmeticae (Inquiries into Arithmetic, 1801), is a classic work in the field of mathematics. Gauss next turned his attention to astronomy. A faint planetoid, Ceres, had been discovered in 1801; and because astronomers thought it was a planet, they observed it with great interest until losing sight of it. From the early observations Gauss calculated its exact position, so that it was easily rediscovered. He also worked out a new method for calculating the orbits of heavenly bodies. In 1807 Gauss was appointed professor of mathematics and director of the observatory at Göttingen, holding both positions until his death there on February 23, 1855. Although Gauss made valuable contributions to both theoretical and practical astronomy, his principal work was in mathematics and mathematical physics. In theory of numbers, he developed the important prime-number theorem. He was the first to develop a non-Euclidean geometry, but Gauss failed to publish these important findings because he wished to avoid publicity. In probability theory, he developed the important method of least squares and the fundamental laws of probability distribution. The normal probability graph is still called the Gaussian curve. He made geodetic surveys, and applied mathematics to geodesy. With the German physicist Wilhelm Eduard Weber, Gauss did extensive research on magnetism. His applications of mathematics to both magnetism and electricity are among his most important works; the unit of intensity of magnetic fields is today called the gauss. He also carried out research in optics, particularly in systems of lenses. Scarcely a branch of mathematics or mathematical physics was untouched by Gauss. For more information, check out the website at http://scienceworld.wolfram.com/biography/Gauss.html.


5. gene and genius: The debate on Nature versus Nurture is a hot issue in sociology, politics, and even in people's everyday lives. The big question: is Man a product of Nature and what the sociobiologists proclaim: a product of his genes — or is he a product of Nurture, namely: of his social environment, the society he lives in, and his education; said in terms of social science: a product of his socialization? The simplified result of the debate is the statement: “Well, Man is a product of Nature as well as of Nurture.” This, however, is an unrefined view because it didn’t answer the question: What feature in a person is product of Nature and what feature is product of Nurture and to what extent? For more information on this topic, please go to the website at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/genome/debate.html. The web page at http://www.sa.usf.edu/dlewis/publications/naturevsnurture.htm provides a historical perspective on the issue. The website at http://slate.msn.com/id/106575/ offers a story about genius babies who were born as a result of the “Seed” project, an experiment on genetic choice.