Greetings, Eric Seagel has commented that Leonardo di Vinci is "exceptionalism personified"; I would strongly argue that he is history's most overrated person. To begin, he was not a scientist. A scientist seeks to increase mankind's knowledge. Di Vinci did no such thing. Scientists PUBLISH their discovies; Di Vinci did not. All the discovies attributed to Di Vinci were actually discovered by someone else who published these findings and thus contributed to the development of those ideas. Many years afterwards, Di Vinci's notes (which he had kept secret) were found and it was learned that Di Vinci had previously had that idea. But by the time that Di Vinci's notes were discovered, the idea had already been well developed and Di Vinci did not contribute to that development. Di Vinci cannot, as far as I can tell, be credited with the discovery of anything; credit goes to the person who publishes and thus gets the ball rolling. For "exceptionalism personified", try one of Di Vinci's near contemporaries: Galileo. Here was a man who was not afraid to tell the world what he had learned. Kevin McCartney, Ph.D. Associate Prof., Geology Director, Northern Maine Museum of Science (opens October 5) University of Maine at Presque Isle Presque Isle, ME 04769