Anemone's Research Emporium

Nicolaus Steno (1638-1686)

Anemone Cerridwen
January 19, 2009

[This is an example of a famous gifted non-autistic person.]

Source: The Seashell on the Mountaintop: A story of science, sainthood, and the humble genius who discovered a new history of the Earth. Alan Cutler, 2003. Dutton.

Nicolaus Steno (b. Niels Stensen) was a Danish scientist and later priest who was one of the leading scientists of his day. He started his studies in medicine at the University of Copenhagen, moved on to Amsterdam, making friends with Spinoza while there, then completed his M.D. at the university at Leiden. He became a celebrity anatomist known for the superior precision of his dissections, something often performed for the public. He discovered the salivary duct in the mouth, later mapping all the ducts in the head and discovering the tear duct in the process. He determined that the heart was a muscle and proposed that muscles worked by contracting along their length. He refuted theories of the brain at that time, instead stating that no one really knew anything since it was so hard to do a proper dissection. He also refuted Descartes' theory that the pineal gland was the seat of the soul and controlled the body through its rotations by demonstrating that the gland could not move without tearing tissues around it. After some time in Paris on the lecture circuit, he joined the Cimento, an experimental group of scientists in Florence sponsored by the Grand Duke Ferdinando II and his brother Leopoldo. There he took a detour into geology, where he decided (like others before him) that fossils were dead animals that were deposited in sediments rather than something that spontaneously grew in the rock like crystals. He elaborated the basic principles of stratigraphy in his book De Solido. These principles not well received by scientists at the time but later became the foundation of modern geology. Then he became a priest, having converted from his native Lutheranism to Roman Catholicism. Reluctantly appointed bishop, he was sent into Germany to minister to Catholics there and in Scandinavia. There, he became friends with Leibniz (Newton's rival). He became increasingly ascetic, living a live of voluntary poverty and fasting frequently, and died in Germany, age 48, worn out by his ascetic lifestyle.

Steno was well educated by the standards of his time. He had no problems making friends and connections among the academic elite wherever he was, and actively lobbied for good jobs. He appeared to be very good at working within the system: he was not an outsider, though he was outstanding. He was known for his superior dissection skills, and a keen mind "as deft and sharp as his scalpel". As a young boy, he was more interested in polite, serious talk with his elders than chatter with his age mates, and he attracted mentors easily. His thinking was quick, precise, intense and analytical, with amazing powers of concentration. He had an insatiable curiosity about nature, enjoyed experimenting in the lab, and read eclectically.

Steno was a polymath: when younger, he lamented that he couldn't concentrate on one thing, but kept being distracted by other subjects. He had enrolled in medicine in school but found himself taking notes on the structure of snowflakes, for example. (He would have preferred to study mathematics, but medicine was supposed to be more practical. In the end he didn't practice medicine after all because he thought most cures were useless.) Eventually he did concentrate on anatomy, until he was distracted by geology, but by that time he was ok with his polymath nature.

Steno had a lifelong mixture of toughness and sensitivity, being very successful but also experiencing much internal anguish over his imperfections. This was probably a combination of his dour Lutheran upbringing and the existential angst common in gifted people.

He was considered to have a pleasant demeanour, and be agreeable in conversation. He was known for his genuineness and warmth. Steno was not known for social awkwardness, unlike a friend, Jan Swammerdam, who was moody and socially inept in addition to being even more focussed than Steno was.

Steno wanted certainty, probably at least in part because of an unstable childhood: his father died when he was eight, his first stepfather a year after. In addition he had to deal with war and plague during his youth in Copenhagen. He originally looked for certainty in science, but gave up - science was too young at the time to be much help there. Also, he didn't like the competitiveness he had to deal with in science, preferring pure research. In the end he shifted his search for certainty from science to religion, giving up science as a sacrifice to God.

I do not see any evidence that Steno was on the autistic spectrum. He does not seem to have had any problems making his way in either his professional or his personal life. He does seem to have had some of the existential angst common among gifted people, and he was obviously exceptionally gifted. He may also have been anorexic in his later years. But other than that he appears to have been unusually high functioning. I label him a typical gifted person of distinction. Also, out of Bolen's God archetypes, I suspect that "Apollo" would suit him best.