How do you notice a child genius (天才)? Gifted children tend to share three characteristics.

First, they develop skills at a very young age. Mozart began composing music when he was just five years old.

Second, they are self-starters. Srinivasa Ramanujan was building complex formula (公式) before he’d even been taught basic mathematics.

Third, gifted children can be crazy about their interests. For William James Sidis, a writer, had collected hundreds of street car models and had learned eight languages by the time he was eight. He was accepted at Harvard University at the age of 11.

They would all have been good members for Mensa, an international society for people with the highest IQs. Its youngest member is just two years old. But there can be disadvantages to being so clever. Members of American Mensa are three times more likely than the general public to suffer from allergies (过敏) or depression (抑郁), and they are almost six times more likely to struggle with anxiety.

These are just some of the physical and emotional problems that gifted children in particular may face.

Noticing those children is important, but many of them are being missed. To find out gifted children, you actually have to look for them in all places. The benefits can be huge when those “lost Einsteins” are found.

A study has been observing 5,000 gifted people since 1972. All of the children had test scores high enough to get into university when they were just 13. In adulthood, the first 1,650 people went on to publish 85 books, more than 7,500 articles. One-third of the group earned a doctor’s degree that is 17 times the national average.

The founder of Google and Lady Gaga were discovered as gifted children. The child geniuses who could change tomorrow’s world are already out there. But will we notice them?

The spread of Internet learning for huge numbers of people is leading some colleges to offer MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses. Major universities like Stanford in California and Harvard in Massachusetts have invested millions of dollars to help launch MOOCs.

Those schools and others may have heard an attention-getting prediction. The man who created the MOOC service Udacity says that in fifty years, only ten traditional universities will remain in the world. That prediction came from Sebastian Thrun, a computer scientist probably best known for his part in making Google's driverless car. He is still a research professor at Stanford University. But he left his teaching position at Stanford to help start Udacity ,a provider of MOOCs.

Universities that fail to join the movement for MOOCs may be worried about their chances of survival. Colleges also hope to gain more students and cut operational costs in return for their investments.

Moody's Investor Service predicts that MOOCs will help large, famous universities gain more students. It says schools that create content for MOOCs can earn money by providing the course material to smaller schools.

But the investment service is warning that smaller, less well-known colleges may suffer because of MOOCs. It says students may want to receive certificates from major universities instead of attending a local junior college that provides traditional credits.

Recently, the University of Washington said it was the first American university to offer credit for MOOCs, credit that could be used toward a degree from the school.

One criticism of MOOCs has been that most courses being offered are in science, mathematics and technology. But several courses in literature are now available.

Professor Nelson says, "How much MOOCs will change college life is still up in the air. I have been of the opinion which is what universities will evolve to do is to still present some traditional classes, but that universities in some sense will be integrated."