Jacob's Genius

Over a year ago I put up a brief post about the phenomenal math/science autistic prodigy Jacob (Jake) Barnett (I.Q. 170) after he'd appeared on a "60 Minutes" segment:

http://math-frolic.blogspot.com/2012/01/autistic-prodigy-1-in-10-million.html

I hadn't really followed his story since then (he's 14 years-old now, studying astrophysics at college), but noticed this week in the bookstore that his mother has authored a new book about raising him, entitled "The Spark."
From briefly flipping through pages and early reviews, looks to be a very interesting volume (though don't know when I'll have a chance to read all the way through). Anyway, passing it along for any, who like me, have a fascination with the linkages between math, language, music, and cognition/savantism. So hard to comprehend where this kind of genius or brain-wiring derives from, or alternatively, since it does exist, why it is so rare.

Many YouTube clips of young Jacob in action here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/mathboysmom

An older newspaper piece about him here:

http://tinyurl.com/4oa599v  

And a more recent piece here:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/08/indiana-boy-genius-book/2064921/