Daniel Tammet

Daniel Tammet is a very high-functioning autistic savant. He can do math without thinking about it. He can learn a new language in a week. He can multiply 37 by itself - three times, or divide 13 by 97 - to 100 decimal places. He memorized and recited in public the number Pi to 22,500 decimal places.

Embedded above is the British documentary "The Boy With The Incredible Brain," about Daniel and some other famous savants. What is important about the video is not just the "WOW factor" of his skills, but the simple, somewhat subtle revelation about the utterly amazing capabilities of the human brain, some of which are suddenly revealed after head trauma.

This is a 48 minute video; it's worth the time. You can watch it in larger format by clicking the "expand" icon at the bottom of the embed, or by going to Google Video.

Found at Ovablastic.