Jake: Hanging out with a teenage Einstein

By MORLEY SAFER - CBS 60 MINUTES
Added: Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:27:22 UTC

From 60 Minutes Overtime

(CBS News)

Jake Barnett is one in 10 million. The Indianapolis 13-year-old has been acing college math and science courses since he was eight years old. Now Jake is a college sophomore taking honors classes in math and physics, while also doing scientific research and tutoring fellow students. No one could have predicted that Jake would even make it to college. At age two, Jake began to regress - he stopped speaking and making eye contact. The diagnosis: autism. Jake is proud of his autism. "That, I believe, is the reason why I am in college and I am so successful," he tells Morley Safer.

The following script is from "Jake" which aired on Jan. 15, 2012. Morley Safer is the correspondent. Katy Textor, producer.

Child prodigies have long been a source of great fascination. We wonder, "How can so much talent reside in such a young body, so much genius?" In a moment you'll meet Jake a 13-year-old math and science prodigy who is confident he may one day challenge some of the established theories of physics.

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