ABSTRACT
Much research has gone into looking at the correlates of genius, in the hope of finding out the conditions favouring the emergence of creative excellence. The most obvious characteristic of the genius, of course, is maleness. Francis Galton's notion of genius running in the family would be found to be true. But configuration means the absence of even one element produces a fatal flaw which cannot be corrected by increasing the excellence of the other elements. Research on highly gifted boys and girls equal in mathematical ability showed that boys tended to concentrate all their efforts on mathematics, and achieved greater success than girls who spread their efforts more widely. Religion seems at first sight an unlikely candidate for genius status, but while many scientists have been agnostics or atheists, the religion practised by their parents has frequently been correlated with their achievements.
