Are you as clever as Leonardo Da Vinci?

In advance of the Da Vinci – The Genius exhibition, which arrives in Manchester in November, MOSI has launched a search for people whose brains are ‘wired’ like Leonardo Da Vinci’s. And they've got NASA to give them a helping hand.

According to MOSI, this quasi-scientific exercise will help identify people with Da Vinci-esque mental powers, as Leonardo was apparently able to write clearly with one hand and draw accurately with the other simultaneously.

The museum’s smooth-talking director Steve Davies somehow persuaded the crew of the space shuttle (who visited the museum in July as part of an education tour) to take on what’s been dubbed the Da Vinci ‘Genius Test’. This involves trying to write ‘Da Vinci The Genius’ with one hand while drawing a person’s face with the other at the same time (see the attempt by NASA mission specialist Joseph Acaba, below).

According to MOSI, this quasi-scientific exercise will help identify people with Da Vinci-esque mental powers, as Leonardo was apparently able to write clearly with one hand and draw accurately with the other simultaneously. This ability has been attributed to him being a ‘whole brain thinker’ – a condition where both right and left sides of the brain work together efficiently.

MOSI say they are keen to discover how rare this condition is, and want as many people as possible to try the test and send them the results to compare to the astronauts' and other people’s efforts.

Jill Flynn from MOSI said: “Not many of us have ever tried to determine whether we are left, right or whole brain thinkers and this exercise helps you discover something about how your mind is organised. As our film demonstrates, even amongst astronauts, who are some of the most mentally agile individuals in the world, there are great variations in how individual brains act and perform.”

The astronaut footage and full details of the test can be found by visiting MOSI’s Da Vinci microsite: www.davincithegenius.ning.com. The Da Vinci – The Genius exhibition opens on 14 November and runs until next June.