We’ve already met one polymath today. The Royal Institution and Nature want to introduce you to a few more. Starting tonight (21 March), the two organisations are co-hosting a trio of evenings at the Royal College of Surgeons devoted to polymathy. It seems not everyone hates a know-it-all.

Tonight’s event concerns Thomas Young, a walking Wikipedia and the titular ‘last man who knew everything’. In the early 1800s, Young lectured with erudition on subjects as diverse as physics and Egyptology. In the opinion of the RI, “Young’s polymathy is both fascinating and disturbing for us in an age of specialisation. Is such an unbridled pursuit of knowledge possible today—and if it is, is it a good idea?”. The lecture will be given by Young’s biographer Andrew Robinson.

If you didn’t catch tonight’s lecture, the next in the series is on 18 April. We move forward a century to 1900 and the world of D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson. Writer John Whitfield will explain how Thompson wove together maths, physics, biology – even the classics – to describe how life is shaped by factors additional to evolution.

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Polymaths through time. Young, Thompson,…everyone?

The final event (16 May) leaps on another century, taking us to the present day. ‘Whatever happened to the polymaths?’ brings together the two previous speakers and Oliver Morton, Chief News and Features Editor at Nature. They’ll be debating whether it’s still possible to see past one’s own area of specialism to ‘get the big picture’. A more interesting question might be ‘is there any point seeking a broad knowledge these days’? (beyond the obvious advantages you could bring to a pub quiz team). When so much information is but a mouse click away, can anyone be a polymath?

I’m going home to ponder such things…in Mandarin Chinese…while playing my balalaika.