12 Year old Astrophysics Prodigy Welcome Back Einstein!

Taken from: new.yahoo.com

Jacob Barnett, who has an IQ of 170, began solving 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzles at the age of 3, not long after he'd been diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a mild form of autism. A few years later, he taught himself calculus, algebra, and geometry in two weeks. By 8, he had left high school, and is currently taking college-level advanced astrophysics classes—while tutoring his older classmates. And he's being recruited for a paid researcher job by Indiana University.

Now, he's at work on a theory that challenges the Big Bang—the prevailing explanation among scientists for how the universe came about. It's not clear how developed it is, but experts say he's asking the right questions.
The theory that he's working on involves several of the toughest problems in astrophysics and theoretical physics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFmrlIEpJOE

Another interesting video on Jake which has a very interesting question regarding Einstein's theory.

//video.yahoo.com/watch/8796685/24707163

This kid is wicked smaht!

He's 8 years old and he's already challenging the Big Bang theory.

Feynman + Einstein + steroids + crack = that kid.

If I was that smart, I would focus my attention on the stock market.

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Originally Posted by Raphael

If I was that smart, I would focus my attention on the stock market.

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If you're that smart, there's no need. You're set for life.

If you're that smart, you realise there are greater pleasures and greater callings.

It's cool to see this kid, still doing typical 12 year old things also. He likes to watch the Disney Channel and kicks back on his 360 to play Halo. If I remember right, I believe I read somewhere that he plays classical music by memory.

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Originally Posted by Ne-yo

It's cool to see this kid, still doing typical 12 year old things ... kicks back on his 360 to play Halo.

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dohoho

Funny coming from the grown man with my little pony in his signature.

I actually do kick back and play a little Halo every now and then. I play C.O.D. as well amongst other games. It's one of my favorite past times.

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Originally Posted by Xei

If you're that smart, you realise there are greater pleasures and greater callings.

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How do you know?

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Originally Posted by cmind

How do you know?

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Xei is just that smart!

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Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

Xei is just that smart!

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Evidently.

It's a matter of personal preference. I have found that generally smart people want to prove their intelligence and contribute to the greater good. However if one were even smarter, I think that they would do what they love (mathematical theories, rigorous discussions, etc) and also enjoy the other aspects of life, such as dating, traveling, and making loads of money.

That or you work tirelessly on a problem that seems impossible, and nags at you day and night. Until you eventually figure it out, but then others look at it and they find the smallest of flaws in your idea, and you realize it is not 100% correct! So you again work and work on it more and more, but you never get that final answer, as one small thing always seems to elude you, and every time you figure out the problem, another one shows up some where else in your work. So you continue and continue until you start to go mad, but in your madness you find insight to great question that bring you praise and renown, but still that one small flaw nags at you, never ending. The one flaw that will always escape your grasp, that one flaw that you can never figure out, no matter how smart you are, no matter how long you work, it continues to escape you. If only you had a little more time, just a little more time, but there is never enough time. In the end, you die and your one true regret on your death bed is that the one piece of the universal puzzle has escaped your grasp forever.

Feeling a little cynical today? :P

That's how science works, luckily it's a team effort and everyone works off of each other in order to advance the...... I just lost my train of thought.

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Originally Posted by MindGames

I have found that generally smart people want to prove their intelligence

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No, it's not the smart ones that do that...

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Originally Posted by Ne-yo

Funny coming from the grown man with my little pony in his signature.

I actually do kick back and play a little Halo every now and then. I play C.O.D. as well amongst other games. It's one of my favorite past times.

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I thought it was funny, because it's a very common stereotype that Halo players are little children who know nothing about real gaming. It's more of an in-joke for those that are active in the gaming communnity though :p

Halo is the only video game I like. I like the colors and I love the physics. The more realistic games make it hard for me to see things.

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Originally Posted by Marvo

I thought it was funny, because it's a very common stereotype that Halo players are little children who know nothing about real gaming. It's more of an in-joke for those that are active in the gaming communnity though :p

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Yea I'm not active in the gaming community I guess. I thought that my little pony signature you have was funny because my daughter absolutely LOVES it and that's actually not a stereotype, all little girls really do like my little pony, just like you. :shock:

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Originally Posted by PhilosopherStoned

Halo is the only video game I like. I like the colors and I love the physics. The more realistic games make it hard for me to see things.

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By real gaming I meant real time strategy, Battlefield (before Bad Company), Half-Life and platformers, not the typical cowadoody mudon wofo crap. But that is subject for another discussion :)

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Originally Posted by Ne-yo

Yea I'm not active in the gaming community I guess. I thought that my little pony signature you have was funny because my daughter absolutely LOVES it and that's actually not a stereotype, all little girls really do like my little pony, just like you. http://static3.dreamviews.org/smilies/icon_eek.gif

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The new show, Friendship is Magic, actually has a fairly large adult following.

http://www.dreamviews.com/f35/my-lit...-magic-111508/

Read that!

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Originally Posted by Marvo

The new show, Friendship is Magic, actually has a fairly large adult following.

http://www.dreamviews.com/f35/my-lit...-magic-111508/

Read that!

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How about, :hrm:Ummmmmm .... No..lol.

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Originally Posted by cmind

No, it's not the smart ones that do that...

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Generally, I have found that they do, since I was one of the smart kids placed in accelerated learning programs in school.

Great video. It's wonderful to see star children and rainbow children being reincarnated into this dimension from the advanced pleadian and lyran dimensions. They're preparing us for 2012.

Seriously..?

I know all sorts of people that believe exactly that crap. The funny thing is that none of them would be caught dead hanging out with this kid. They'd all tell him to "open his mind".

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Originally Posted by Jeff777

Great video. It's wonderful to see star children and rainbow children being reincarnated into this dimension from the advanced pleadian and lyran dimensions. They're preparing us for 2012.

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lol

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Originally Posted by Xei

Seriously..?

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No. :)

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Originally Posted by PhilosopherStoned

I know all sorts of people that believe exactly that crap. The funny thing is that none of them would be caught dead hanging out with this kid. They'd all tell him to "open his mind".

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Cool.

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Originally Posted by Ne-yo

lol

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:chuckle:

I was about to say "and he doesn't even know how to hold a marker properly".
But then I realised he's holding it so the ink keeps coming out. He is a genius!

Just found this:
http://www.freethunk.net/freethunk-n...-big-bang-1786

uh oh. :(

Wow, Glenn Beck has become hilariously pretentious since I last remember seeing him, I guess because of the whole Tea Party thing. Haha...

Anyway, this kid seems rather sophomoric if what the article says is true, namely that he is trying to prove that the Big Bang can't have created all of the carbon in the universe. I only have a layman's understanding of cosmology but I know that this is stupid. The heavy elements were all formed by fusion in dying stars.

Yeah you can't really tell what he actually think though because Glenn Beck is trying to push some creationist spin on it and the kid hasn't really said anything about it himself.

Phil Plait talked about this kid in a blog.

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Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

Phil Plait talked about this kid in a blog.

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I think I've heard of Phil Plait before, just out of curiosity, is he an Atheist?

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Originally Posted by Ne-yo

I think I've heard of Phil Plait before, just out of curiosity, is he an Atheist?

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I wouldn't be surprised if he was. Don't know why it would matter though.

I'm happy as long as he is happy. I would never want this kid to feel forced into anything, he may be a genius, but hes still human. I hope his gift brings him only happiness and excitement.

Good luck kid :D.

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Originally Posted by BLUELINE976

I wouldn't be surprised if he was. Don't know why it would matter though.

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Because smart people being atheistic = win, duh :P?