

Above: back cover exert from American genius biographer Clifford Pickover's 1998 Strange Brains and Genius. [1] Right: the famous "come in with the milk" scene from the 2004 film The Aviator, which is based on real life (reaction existence) and times of American aviator pioneer and film mogul Howard Hughes (see also: why is this site here?).

In genius studies, milk and genius refers to the peculiar habit of a number of noted geniuses to consume large amounts of milk and or to exist only on milk in place of other beverages or food.

American genius biographer Clifford Pickover, in his 1998 Strange Brains and Genius, seems to have been the first to call attention to the peculiar phenomenon. [1]

English self-taught electrical engineer, mathematician, and physicist Oliver Heaviside (1850-1925), the person who condensed Maxwell's field equations with 20 variables down to four equations with two variables, had very specific food preferences and an unnatural interest in food. He sometimes lived like a cat, drinking bowls of milk for days. Milk, and nothing else.

Serbian-born American electrical engineer Nikola Tesla, as Pickover reports, also lived on milk, and for many years. [1] Tesla’s milk eating habits and number peculiarities, as biographer Carol Dommermuth-Costa reports, outlined below: [2]

“In his later years, [Tesla’s] meals often consisted of a bowl of milk. His eating habits remained odd. Obsessed by numbers that were divisible by three, he always required eighteen cloth napkins to be placed near his plate so that he could clean each glass, utensil, and dish before using them and then discard the napkin. Also, whenever he needed to wipe his mouth during the meal, he used a clean napkin. This eccentricity also applied to the number of towels that he required in the bathroom. He insisted that either fifteen or eighteen clean towels be on hand when he washed or bathed.”

Tesla, in respect to dietary numbers and milk, is thus strikingly similar to the milk dietary habits of Howard Hughes and his number of peas he required during; always requested his diners with twelve peas, no more, no less (Ѻ)

Likewise, Thomas Edison's only foods were milk and the occasional glass of orange juice. [1]

Irish chemist Richard Kirwan, the “brilliant 18th-century polymath”, as Pickover describes him, existed entirely on a diet of only milk and ham.

The most-famous film depiction of the genius milk phenomenon is the “come in with the milk” scene from the 2004 film The Aviator based on the existence reaction of American aviation and film pioneer Howard Hughes (IQ=175±) (see also: why is this site here), as shown adjacent, wherein one can count 60 milk bottles filled with urine.

The 1971 film A Clockwork Orange written, directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, adapted from Anthony Burgess's 1962 novella A Clockwork Orange, has a similar sort of milk scene.

Theodore Kaczynski (IQ=165), math prodigy turned unabomber, as noted by his college dorm mates, had a room piled with trash two feet deep underneath it all were what smelled like unused cartons of milk.

American electrochemical engineer Libb Thims (IQ=160-230±) frequently consumes upwards of 2 liters of milk per day (1%, 2% or sometimes whole), or 2-3 per week, especially so after long extended 10-hour+ periods of study, after which milk is the only thing that will quench and calm the brain.

References
1. Pickover, Clifford A. (1998). Strange Brains and Genius: the Secret Lives of Eccentric Scientists and Madman (milk, pg. 70 + backcover). Quill.
2. Dommermuth-Costa, Carol. (1998). Nikola Tesla: a Spark of Genius (pg. 128). Twenty-First Century Books.

Further reading
● Jacob, Matthew and Jacob, Mark. (2010). What the Great Ate: a Curious History of Food and Fame (milk, 44+ pgs). Random House.