POLYMATHS: 20 LIVING EXAMPLES

POLYMATHS: 20 LIVING EXAMPLES A main feature for the autumn issue of Intelligent Life magazine looks at the decline of the polymath. The author, Edward Carr, argues that in this age of specialisation, the polymath has become an endangered species.

For an accompanying table, we set about identifying living examples. We asked around the office, inviting nominations from the staff of Intelligent Life and The Economist.

The names that came in were highly varied, overwhelmingly male, mostly Anglophon...