3 Documentaries: "Don't Grow Old", "What Makes a Genius?" and "The Boy With the Incredible Bra

These are 2 documentaries I found very interesting and I thought I would share them with the community.

Don't Grow Old

Synopsis from the website:

For centuries scientists have been attempting to come up with an elixir of youth. Now remarkable discoveries are suggesting that aging is something flexible that can ultimately be manipulated.

Horizon meets the scientists who are attempting to piece together why we age and more vitally for all of us, what we can do to prevent it. But which theory will prevail?

Does the 95-year-old woman who smokes two packets of cigarettes a day hold the clue? Do blueberries really delay signs of aging or is it more a question of attitude?

Does the real key to controlling how we age lie with a five-year-old boy with an extraordinary aging disease or with a self-experimenting Harvard professor? Could one of these breakthroughs really see our lives extend past 120 years?


What makes a genius?

Synopsis from site :

Could you have come up with Einstein’s theory of relativity? If not – why not? This is what Marcus du Sautoy, professor of mathematics, wants to explore.

Marcus readily admits that he is no genius, but wants to know if geniuses are just an extreme version of himself – or whether their brains are fundamentally different.

Marcus meets some remarkable individuals – Tommy, an obsessive artist who uses his whole house as his canvas; Derek: blind, autistic, and a pianist with apparently prodigious gifts; Claire who is also blind, but whose brain has learnt to see using sound.

Marcus is shown how babies have remarkable abilities which most of us lose as teenagers. He meets a neuroscientist who claims he has evidence of innate ability, a scientist who’s identified a gene for learning, and Dr. Paulus, who has discovered how to sharpen the brain… by electrically turbo-charging it.


Both of these documentaries really challenged the way I think and I would recommend them to anyone.

ps: this website has hundreds of free documentaries (possibly a thousand?)

flagged them for viewing later.

the site itself is GOLDEN.

nice find mate

The Boy With the Incredible Brain
Here is one more I would recommed if you liked "What makes a genius?" . I thought that the 2 documentaries were actually one. My mistake I watched them a long time ago and just realized that there was actually 2 different documentaries about the amazing brain.

Synopsis from site:

This is the breathtaking story of Daniel Tammet. A twenty-something with extraordinary mental abilities, Daniel is one of the world’s few savants. He can do calculations to 100 decimal places in his head, and learn a language in a week.

He also meets the world’s most famous savant, the man who inspired Dustin Hoffman’s character in the Oscar winning film ‘Rain Man’

This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone.


(sorry for the slow edits and replies my computer is extremely slow :mad

reply to post by kn0wh0w


Thank you . Yeah this site is amazing!! I remember when I first stumbled upon it I didn't go outside for like a week!

In What Makes a Genius scientists at MIT have have taken a gene out of mice that allows them to learn and now they don't learn. I sincerely hope that research like that is never used on humans but you never know who would do such things. Hopefully, it will be used to come to a better understanding of how humans learn.

reply to post by PhantomLimb


I know what you mean. It's scary that its just as easy as removing a piece of the brain and PRESTO. You're unable to learn from your experiences.

I would give that 3rd documentary a chance if you haven't already seen it. These people are mindblowing, the "savants". The one dude who inspired the movie rain man can remember somethin like 95% of what he reads and sees? That's so hard to believe but he can prove it!

I'd love to hear what your thoughts are on these documentaries if you liked them.

I'm also going to point out once more that the website www.topdocumentaryfilms.com is full of very insightfull and controversial documentaries.

"The boy with the incredible bra".

This thread seriously fails to live up to the hype!


In all seriousness though... they look really interesting, I'll have to check them out. Thanks for the links!

reply to post by theshepherd2


thanks shepherd! i watched the 'genius' one so far and am about to start the 'growing old' one and so far so AWESOME!

I watched The Boy with the Incredible Brain some time ago and found it interesting. I've always been interested in synesthesia and memory, and have been studying memory enhancement techniques like mnemonics, etc.

One thing I learnt from The Boy with the Incredible Brain is that Rain Main (well, the guy who the character was based off) has quiet the ego... lol

Thanks for the thread, I just viewed the boy with the incredible bra quite uplifting and could not peel my eyes from it. I will definitely view the others but had to reply at this point. I recall a TED video with Arthur Benjamin called Mathemagic and would like to offer his display of mental calculations, though more of a learned discipline and not quite the magic of a savant, the abacus Japanese children part brought it to my recall.