Albert Einstein Had Nothing On 4-Year-Old Super-Genius Sherwyn Sarabi
He’s been compared to Albert Einstein, but the creator of special relativity did not become world famous until the ripe old age of 26. In the age of the internet, Sherwyn Sarabi is already gaining a global fan base at age 4, thanks to his extraordinary feats of mental acrobatics.
The child of Iranian immigrants to the United Kingdom, the boy who lives in the northern English village of Royston made worldwide headlines last year when, at age 3, he scored 136 on an IQ test, high enough to become the youngest member of MENSA, the exclusive genius society.
He has appeared on TV, in the news, and has a new Facebook page with close to 3,000 “likes” already.
Now a year has passed, and Sherwyn is not slowing down. His latest IQ score was recorded at a staggering 160 which, if written tests can determine that sort of thing, would make him the next Einstein, or Stephen Hawking.
Though he spoke his first words by 10 months and spoke in complete sentences a quick 10 months after that, Sherwyn remains just a regular kid – to outward appearances, anyway.
“Most of the time Sherwyn is like a normal child,” his 37-year-old mother Amanda Sarabi told a local English newspaper, The Huddersfield Daily Examiner. “He plays with toys, plays out and likes being with other children.”
But there is one aspect of Sherwyn’s behavior that is different from most other kids, and who knows, maybe it accounts for at least some of his genius.
“The only thing he doesn’t do is watch television,” says his mom. “He hasn’t watched TV since he was 16 months old.”
Among his many other world-changing innovations, Albert Einstein discovered the photoelectric effect, which led to the invention of television. In fact, it was specifically for his work on the photoelectric effect that Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921, not for his more famous creation of the theory of relativity.
Could Sherwyn Sarabi ever reach those dizzying intellectual heights? It’s still a little early to tell, of course, but the psychologist who administered both of his IQ tests sees the boy’s potential.
“Sherwyn has a very superior level of intelligence, he is incredibly gifted and his vocabulary is out of this world,” said educational psychologist Peter Congdon, quoted in The New York Daily News. “His intellect reaches the highest possible levels of reason and when he talks to you he has the social skills of a much older child.”
This year has been a good one for young super-geniuses in England. In August, The Daily Express reported the story of 11-year-old Cerys Cooksammy-Parnell, who registered 162 on her most recent IQ test. And in February, a 16-year-old girl from Essex tallied a 161 score.
As for Albert Einstein, he never took an IQ test, but experts have estimated that his score would have been about 160. A “normal” IQ falls between 85 and 115. Only 1 percent of the world’s population possess IQs over 135.
