Physicist and science writer, Ananyo Bhattacharya, discusses the life of John von Neumann, ‘the genius’s genius’.

Smartphones; game theory; nanotechnology; nuclear weapons.

All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable man: John von Neumann. Born into a Jewish family in culturally dazzling fin de siècle Budapest, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived, reputed by his colleagues to have the fastest brain on the planet – bar none.

Physicist and science writer Ananyo Bhatttacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through so many different fields of science, sparking revolutions wherever he went.

Ananyo Bhattacharya is a science writer who has worked at the Economist and Nature. Before journalism, he was a medical researcher at the Burnham Institute in San Diego, California. He holds a degree in physics from the University of Oxford and a PhD in protein crystallography from Imperial College London. The Man from the Future is his first book.

Bernie Bulkin is a scientist, educator and business leader.  He is the author of Crash Course (2015) and Solving Chemistry (2019) as well as the forthcoming Winning in a Material World.