Famous Doodlers

Your notebook is full of doodles. Flowers. Faces. Funny notes. Your margins practically drip with ink.

You're in good company. Doodling is an ancient and distinguished tradition. Some of the world's most respected thinkers jotted goofy notes. Don't believe it? Behold.

Leonardo Da Vinci: Yes, Leonardo is best known for painting the Mona Lisa. But he also scribbled thousands of pages of drawing and thoughts. At the time they were simple sketches, but his drawings later inspired the helicopter and hydraulic pumps. Crazier still: This left-handed genius wrote backward.

John Keats: He was the most famous poet of his time. He was also a physician. And he liked to draw little flowers in his medical notes. Who knew?

The Ancient Romans: When we think of graffiti, we think of bubble letters on highway bridges and crude limericks in bathroom stalls. But the ancient Romans were writing naughty poems on villa walls back in the B.C.E. Of course, it all sounded a lot classier in Latin.

Stanlislaw Ulam: You've probably never heard of Stanislaw Ulam, so here's his life in a nutshell: (1) Became mathematician. (2) Escaped Holocaust. (3) Helped build first atomic bomb. (4) Went to conference in 1963 and was incredibly bored. Started doodling numbers (since he was a mathematician and all). Suddenly, realized the numbers formed a pattern. Called the pattern the "Ulam Spiral." Today, mathematicians still use the Ulam Spiral. And all because Stanislaw was daydreaming during a lecture. Sound familiar?

Pierre de Fermat: Like most super-brilliant mathematicians, Fermat (pronounced "fare-MAH") was kind of an awkward guy. But he was also ridiculously smart. As legend has it, Fermat wrote an equation in the margins of one of his papers that solved one of most complicated mathematical problems of all time. Unfortunately, these doodles were lost, and it took over 300 years for anyone to solve "Fermat's Last Theorem." Nerd up!

Every American President Ever: When he wasn't running the country, Ronald Reagan drew pictures of cowboys and football players. When John F. Kennedy wasn't getting us out of nuclear war, he was sketching little yachts on his executive stationary. Even George Washington drew doodles, most of which looked like run-of-the-mill trig homework.

So the next time a teacher gets on your case about a few squiggles, say you're following in the footsteps of greatness.

What do you doodle?

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