Funny that you mention Iowa, because I was just going to comment about that. I really think the OP and many commenters (including the parent) bring up a critica

Funny that you mention Iowa, because I was just going to comment about that. I really think the OP and many commenters (including the parent) bring up a critical point: there are smart people and geniuses everywhere, and perhaps some of them are having doors closed to them, when it would be in everybody's interest to keep them open. A while ago, HN had a long-form article-fest, and one that people linked to was an Esquire piece from 1983[1] about Robert Noyce. He came from Iowa and was a key in founding Intel--and from the way the article makes it sound, in putting men on the moon, as well (it's all connected anyway). What struck me is that several famous physicists were connected to Grinnell College in Iowa. I suppose I'm a bit guilty of prejudice against the "fly-over states" at times, so that article and this thread were a good reminder (sort of a 1-2 punch) to knock me out of that thinking. Perhaps part of that is also to see that such potential geniuses do not need to go away to the big city to reach their full potential, either. It would also be great if they could mature locally and contribute to the fields that are important to the communities they come from (agriculture, forestry, etc.). [1] http://www.stanford.edu/class/e140/e140a/content/noyce.html http://www.stanford.edu/class/e140/e140a/content/noyce.html