What’s the difference between someone who’s brilliant and someone who’s a genius?
The IQ score of 130-144 covers the brilliant while a genius is in the range 145-159. There’s even “extraordinary genius” with an IQ of 160-175, for the Einsteins of this world. So much for the arbitrary official measurements. It’s really all in the eye of the beholder. I view my favourite hen as a genius if she produces a lovely brown egg every day.
Ursula Nixon, Bodalla, NSW, Australia
• A virtuoso is brilliant, but a virtuoso who astonishes us by always achieving new and never before seen levels of artistry and skill is a genius. Think Fred Astaire.
Richard Orlando, Westmount, Quebec, Canada
• A brilliant scientist might be so described by peers. It takes a journalist who knows very little about the discipline of a “genius” to create one out of almost nothing.
Ted Webber, Buderim, Queensland, Australia
• Relativity.
Pat Phillips, Adelaide, South Australia
• The brilliant shine. A genius illuminates.
Philip Stigger,
Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
• Brilliance dazzles briefly; genius can produce something of lasting value.
Joan Dawson, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada
• People described as brilliant have convinced others that they’re geniuses.
Donna Samoyloff, Toronto, Canada
• A second thought.
Caroline Mahon, Sydney, Australia
There’s no use crying over it
What is a crying shame?
Shameful abuses of human rights, about which we should cry out loud.
David Isaacs, Sydney, Australia
• Spilt milk?
Adrian Cooper, Queens Park, NSW, Australia
• A cry-baby.
Jennifer Horat, Lengwil, Switzerland
Two out of three ain’t bad
How does mankind deserve and justify the fidelity of dogs and horses?
Dogs, like us, are gregarious and obsessive critters who find a sense of comfort in belongingness, camaraderie, regimentation and hierarchies. Semper fido!
R M Fransson, Ft Lupton, Colorado, US
• We provide dogs and horses with two of the only three things they care about, food and security.
Mac Bradden, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada
• I anthropomorphise with the best, but really it’s food source, shelter source and maybe a bit of imprinting if you are lucky.
Margaret Wyeth, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
He even invented the word
Who was the first ecologist?
Ernst Haeckel, biologist, Darwinist, philosopher and artist, who worked and taught here in Jena, could perhaps lay claim to being the first ecologist as he invented the word ecology, along with quite a few other terms in biology.
Michelle Wilbraham, Jena, Germany
Smells like happiness to me
What is the most beautiful smell there is?
T E Lawrence recounted (in Seven Pillars of Wisdom) the Arab appreciation of the smell of the desert, which “is the best; it has no taste”.
E Slack, L’Isle Jourdain, France
• Any smell linked to our happiness.
Sergio Lorenzi, Vilassar de Mar, Spain
• The smell of freshly slaughtered money.
James J Isles, Fitzroy, Victoria, Australia
Any answers?
We had generation X, generation Y and now generation Z. How will we define the next generation?
Andre Carrel, Terrace, British Columbia, Canada
Is war genetically driven?
Ingrid Baluch, Ribérac, France
Send answers, and more questions, to weekly.nandq@theguardian.com
