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Nature 441, 409 (25 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441409a; Published online 24 May 2006

Everyone hates a know-all

David Philip Miller1

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Last Man Who Knew Everything: Thomas Young, the Anonymous Polymath Who Proved Newton Wrong, Explained How We See, Cured the Sick, and Deciphered the Rosetta Stone, Among Other Feats of Genius

by Andrew Robinson

Pi Press: 2006. 288 pp. £17.99

Know-alls can be maddening. Polymathy, however fascinating, may be a vice as much as a virtue in this age of specialization.