Genius children have been known throughout the centuries and studied by many eminent people. Unfortunately, there seems to be little agreement between the parties as to whether the child has inherited his brain power or perhaps acquired it through a fortuitous developmental factor at birth.

One American response was to use child prodigies in an experiment using the Nobel Sperm Bank in Escondido, California, which was founded by an eccentric elderly millionaire, Robert Graham. The sole aim was to provide intelligent women, who wanted to be mothers of superior babies, with the sperm of Nobel laureates. The experiment was intended to dramatically increase the number of gifted children for future generations.

Afton Blake’s baby became the first genius deliberately conceived, and he was born in 1982. Afton was a single psychologist and chose her baby’s father from a portfolio, which included the donor with good physical appearance and a high level of intelligence. The anonymous donor, identified only by a number, was also a gifted

computer scientist and accomplished musician. The mother named the baby ‘Doron’, which is an anagram for ‘donor’. Psychologists evaluated the baby at 4 months of age and stated that he had an IQ of 200. At 2 years, Doron was developing faster than his peers.

Does this mean anything?

Well, maybe not when you consider the number of genius children born to parents with normal or substandard intelligence. A good example is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who was born in 1756. Although his father was a moderately good violinist, young Wolfgang overshadowed him almost as soon as he could walk. At the age of 3 he taught himself to play the harpsichord chords, and at the age of 5 he composed music. At the age of 6 he dominated musical notation and a year later he performed before the Austrian Emperor in Vienna.

The boy genius, Andragone de Mello was born in 1977. He became the youngest person to graduate from an American university, when at the age of 11 he graduated with a degree in mathematics from the University of California. The boy astonished his parents by saying ‘hello’ to them when he was only 7 weeks old. At two and a half years old, he was playing chess and solving geometry problems. At 4 years old he was studying Greek, physics and philosophy. When I was 8 years old, I was able to write complex computer programs. His father was a flamenco guitarist.

George Bernard Shaw had no doubts about the futility of genetic selection. The grayish-bearded playwright was approached by a gorgeous young actress who suggested that with her brains and beauty, she could produce a ‘wonderful boy’ to astonish the world. He wrote to her and said politely: “But, oh, ma’am! What if the child inherits my appearance and his brain?”