Do geniuses get the credit for their work?

Often, no.

Why do I say this? Well, history is littered with examples of brilliant people whose creative work is either misappropriated or just wrongly credited to someone else. This does no-one any good (apart from the person receiving credit for work they didn't do).

I will give you an example. Have you heard of Peter Desaga? Think hard. Nope? Well, I am not surprised, but I am fairly sure that almost all readers will know of his invention. If you have ever been in a chemistry lab it is something you will have used. Any wiser? No? Well, think of the name Robert Wilhelm Bunsen. Is that familiar in some way? Yes? I bet you remembered then, the "Bunsen" Burner. I say "Bunsen" deliberately, because Bunsen didn't invent the Bunsen Burner, at all. His assistant, Peter Desaga did, by modifying an earlier design of Michael Faraday's.

Now, I think it is rather wrong that Robert Bunsen got the credit for this invention when it was actually his assistant who did the work and created the product. But, the tale gets worse. You see Bunsen did something rather magnanimous with his assistant's idea: he gave it away for free! That's right, Peter Desaga wasn't even rewarded for his invention - and Bunsen looked very generous in giving away, for nothing, something that was not his to give.

Only a few specialists in Chemistry would have heard of Bunsen were it not for the odd fact that the Bunsen Burner - which he didn't invent - is named after him. Bunsen is now an immortal - in name, at least - but Peter Desaga, the man who actually invented it, is an unknown. That is terribly wrong. In writing this article I have just increased Desaga's fame many times - and this is just a blog. How sad that is.

So, no, geniuses don't always get the credit - and often the ones who do are simply socially more important and therefore in a position to leverage credit towards themselves - it is not right and is not good for the health of science, culture or the arts - or wherever this phenomenon occurs. So, Mr. Bunsen, I am going to start calling it a Desaga Burner, from now on. (Or maybe the Desaga-Faraday Burner.) Perhaps you should too. It would only be right.

Oh, by the way, it was Ainan, my seven year old son, who tipped me off about Bunsen's undeserved credit: he didn't like it either.

(If you would like to read about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged seven years and four months, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, three, and Tiarnan, fourteen months, please go to: http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html I also write of child prodigy, IQ, intelligence, gifted education, child genius, baby genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, gifted children and gifted adults in general. Thanks.)

The history of science: Ainan's fascination.

Ainan Celeste Cawley has a love of the history of Science. He is interested not only in what the science is, but the who and how of its origin. For Ainan, his heroes are not rock stars, or film stars, not writers or actors, not models or glitterati - not for him, the lure of celebrity culture. For him, "heroes" are scientists and discoverers, inventors and thinkers. He tells tales of their lives with a mixture of fascination and a sense of the absurdity of what they did to achieve their goals. As he has observed, many times, many of them died in the pursuit of science or were seriously injured. I don't think he is too impressed with the wisdom of this. Nevertheless, he finds their lives (and sometimes ridiculous deaths) interesting. Science can be a dangerous business: all you have to do is to look at the history of science, to realize this.

Take one example Ainan gave me yesterday.

There was a scientist called Richard Perkey (spelling of the surname cannot be confirmed) who lived rather long ago. Ainan gave me the dates - but I haven't been able to find this man on a brief internet search, so perhaps the spelling of his name is wrong - so I won't write the dates without this confirmation. Let us just say it is long ago.

Anyway, our man Richard was tinkering in his laboratory with Uranyl Nitrate (yes, from Uranium) and Hydrogen Peroxide. This is not a wise thing to do as he soon proved. There was a brief explosion, upon mixing, which was unfortunate for poor Richard Perkey, who broke his neck. He was paralysed. His neighbour heard the commotion and came and found Perkey unable to move and duly took the new born chemical away: Uranyl Hydroxide. That is the story of how Uranyl Hydroxide was discovered - but unfortunately the discoverer was in no position to enjoy the fruits of his work.

Such unfortunate tales of discovery are many in the history of science, and Ainan appears to have found them all, so full of these snapshots of past endeavour is he. Interesting though such mishaps must be to a child of six, aghast at the foolishness of adults, I don't believe Ainan would ever intentionally attempt anything so foolhardy: he would prepare for all eventualities first.

If you would like to learn more about Ainan Celeste Cawley, a scientific child prodigy, aged six, then please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, the creatively gifted, and gifted children in general.