Believe it or not, Britain has more living geniuses per head of population than any other country in the world.

This inference can be drawn from a list of 100 living geniuses compiled by a panel of experts after a survey which reveals the country’s influence on science and technology, business and the arts.

Almost a quarter of those in the list are Britons including Sir Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the world wide web, in joint first place along with Sir Tim Albert Hofmann, the Swiss scientist who created the drug LSD, and physicist Stephen Hawking at seven, The Daily Telegraph reported here.

“Many people argue that a genius can be defined by their contribution, where it turns conventional thinking on its head. I think that Albert Hoffman and Tim Berners-Lee have this in common with the great geniuses of the past.
“Both of them have, in their own way, turned the world that we live in upside down. And it may be that alone that accounts for their acclamation as the world’s greatest living geniuses,” said Nigel Clarke, Managing Partner of Synectics UK & Europe, a global consultants firm which chose the geniuses.

Osama & Gates
There are also some surprise entrants. Osama Bin Laden ranks at number 43, a spot he shares with Bill Gates, the Microsoft founder and Mohammed Ali, the former world heavyweight boxing champion.

British artists and musicians also feature heavily, including Brit Art leader Damien Hirst at number 15, poet Seamus Heaney at 26, playwright Harold Pinter at 31, Sir Paul McCartney at 58, David Bowie at 67, Harry Potter author J K Rowling at 83 and filmmaker Ken Russell at 100.

Sir Richard Branson, the head of Virgin Group, at 49, chimpanzee expert Jane Goodall, at 58, and psychologist Dorothy Rowe, at 72, are also in the list.

George Soros, the American financier and philanthropist, Matt Groening, creator of The Simpsons and Nelson Mandela, the former South African president also feature in the list.