Karazin University trained wunderkids: on the occasion of Children's Day

Among the prominent scientists, inventors, and artists were those who had already shown remarkable abilities and interest in their future profession or in creative activity in general in early childhood. We have prepared three stories about Karazin University alumni who demonstrated such a tendency in their childhood.

Ilya Mechnikov is a Nobel Prize winner. Since childhood, he has been an outstanding observer of nature. The authors of one of the studies about the scientist tell us the following fact: "Ilya's love and interest in nature, beauty and everything that inhabited the local area was manifested from an early age. That is why he studied plants, insects, fish, and frogs. One day Ilya saw fireflies. "What are they?" he asked his mother. Emilia explained. "So, I have to spend the night in the forest to see this unknown life with my own eyes," he decided. When it got dark, Ilya went into the woods. At home, they realized that the child was missing. People, taking their dogs with them, began combing the small forest, calling for the boy. But he climbed a tree to avoid being found, and when the search was over, he climbed down to the ground and spent the whole night near a stump where fireflies were bustling."

It is known that the famous paleolinguist Yuri Knorozov, who is credited with deciphering the writing of the mysterious Maya people, used to draw strange creatures as a child, giving them fictitious names. As researchers later found out, they are very similar to the words of the ancient peoples of Central America.

The famous doctor, founder of orthopedics and traumatology in Ukraine, Mykhailo Sitenko, used to play doctor as a child. He would put his younger brother Leonid to bed, check his pulse, examine his tongue, and prescribe medicine. Mykhailo made various solutions from plant infusions and tried to "treat" kittens and puppies with them, for whom he created a whole "infirmary" at home.

It is in childhood that the path to the endless horizons of science, art and literature begins. Karazin University is waiting for gifted young people in its classrooms and laboratories, museums and observatories.