Millions of years of evolution have endowed Homo sapiens with remarkable intellect. But not all human brains are created equal.
From the great powers of memory seen in savants to the skills of chess grandmasters, unusual talents can offer a unique window on how the mind works. This exclusive online issue examines genius in some of its most intriguing forms.
Meet Kim Peek, whose abilities provided the inspiration for the character Raymond Babbit in the movie Rain Man. Peek’s severe developmental disabilities prevent him from managing the chores of daily life, but he has learned 9,000 books by heart so far, among other astonishing feats of memory. Other savants have musical or artistic talents.

Less well known than savant syndrome is Williams syndrome, a disorder in which affected individuals generally score below average on standard IQ tests, but often possess startling language and music skills, as another article in this issue describes. Mood disorders, too, have been linked to genius: it seems that manic-depressive illness and major depression can enhance creativity in some people.
Other articles focus on gifted children. These youngsters fascinate with their precocious intellect, but they often suffer ridicule and neglect. They also tend to be keenly aware of the potential risk of failure, which can prove emotionally paralyzing for them. Studies of such children have provided key insights into brain development—and revealed how best to nurture their extraordinary minds.
Our final article in the issue considers whether some geniuses are made, not born. Dissections of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have shown that their skills arise from years of “effortful study”—continually tackling challenges that lie just beyond their competence. Could comparable training turn any one of us into such an expert? Food for thought.--The Editors

Killing grounds - [8] Kate Shugak mystery by Dana Stabenow

Like Nevada Barr, Dana Stabenow writes mysteries so firmly rooted in the natural world that their sense of place becomes a vital part of the plot. In this book about Native Alaskan crime solver Kate Shugak, the ocean and the men who fish it for salmon are described in such vivid detail that you'll never look at a salmon steak the same way again. When a particularly nasty fisherman is murdered, there's no end of suspects--including members of Kate's own family. The story also sports a richly ironic undertone of political incorrectness, as Kate muses about the forest rangers, "who wanted to annex every square foot of land they saw and keep it pristine and inviolate, unsullied by human hand. They failed to recall that the indigenous peoples who came across the Bering land bridge during the last Ice Age had their hands all over anything that had the remotest possibility of nutritional value, and were every bit as much of the landscape and the wheel of life as the fish and the birds and the mammals."
AUDIO NEEDED!!!

The Structured Curriculum Parent Connection contains activities that have been developed to involve students and parents in cooperative learning experiences.
These activities allow parents to be aware of what their children are learning and provide an opportunity for parents to share in
their children’s experiences.

Historians of French and German literature are accustomed to set off a period or a division of their subject and entitle it Romanticism. Writers of English literary history have not generally accorded it a place by itself in the arrangement of their subject-matter but have treated it cursively as a tendency present in the work of individual authors.

Long before interplanetary exploration and a certain rock group, Robert A. Heinlein wrote this science fiction classic (Random, 1977). Mischievous teen twins Castor and Pollux Stone set the story in motion with a plan to make their fortune as space traders. Soon they are waving goodbye to their home on the Earth's moon and they're headed for Mars with their parents, sister, younger brother, and grandmother. The Stones are an intelligent, strong-willed clan, so there are squabbles during their months of weightless flight...