verizon. captioning funded by cbs and ford-- built for the road ahead. >> hi. thanks for calling groupon. this is bethany. how can i help you? >> stahl: three years ago, groupon turned the coupon into a digital tool for bargain hunting at your neighborhood stores. >> you just hit "buy." >> stahl: "buy." i bought it. this past november, the company had the biggest initial public stock offering, or i.p.o., of any internet company since google. and yet, groupon is the subject of a fierce debate: will it revolutionize how we shop or just end up a passing fad?

>> simon: qatar is tiny, wedged between two giants, iran and saudi arabia. its capital, doha, is literally rising from the sand. not very long ago, that's all there was here, sand. today, it looks ritzier and wackier than any city anywhere. and there's more than bling. a new state-of-the-art hospital is about to open. there's a first-class symphony orchestra. the emir imported the musicians. there are six top american universities. and, oh, yes, there's something else: qataris are the richest people in the world. >> safer: for jake, fun is reciting from memory the infinite series of numbers known as pi. >> 3.1495.... >> safer: child prodigies have long been a source of great fascination. tonight, you'll meet a 13-year- old math and science prodigy who

is confident he may one day challenge some of the established principles of physics. he says his mind is constantly buzzing with new theories. when he runs out of wall space, he moves on to windows. remembering things so precisely, does that ever become a burden to you? >> no, not at all. >> i'm steve kroft. >> i'm lesley stahl. >> i'm morley safer. >> i'm bob simon. >> i'm lara logan. >> i'm scott pelley. those stories tonight on "60 minutes." [ thud ] ♪ [ thud ] [ horn honks ] ♪

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>> stahl: by now you have probably heard of the company called groupon, even though it started only three years ago as a side project of a quirky young midwesterner. what he did was reinvent the coupon, turning it into a digital tool for bargain hunting at your neighborhood stores. the company took off, almost overnight.

it's global now, raking in hundreds of million of dollars a month. wall street took notice-- this past november groupon had the biggest initial public stock offering-- or i.p.o.-- of any internet company since google. the company's worth jumped to an unexpected $18 billion on the first day of trading. and yet, groupon is the subject of a fierce debate-- will it revolutionize how we shop in the long-run or just end up a passing fad? the answer depends in part on the 31-year-old who came up with the idea, groupon's founder and c.e.o. andrew mason. what is a groupon? >> mason: a groupon is, essentially, a voucher that's worth money that you can take into a business and use like cash. when you subscribe and you get these emails every day, it's a great way to explore your city and find out about really cool local things to do. >> stahl: the deals are at least 50% off.

so, for example, a $40 meal for a $20 coupon, or a half off hot- air balloon ride. groupon has 150 million subscribers who get a daily email with deal offers from local businesses. is it usually for something that we don't really need? >> mason: it could be. sometimes, it's for a restaurant or a massage or a session in a sensory deprivation tank, but sometimes, it's for a hardware store or dry cleaning. >> stahl: the company began in 2008 at the height of the recession, when everyone was looking for a bargain, and then it grew so quickly so fast, it took everyone by surprise, including andrew mason. >> mason: once we started groupon, the success was intoxicating. it was just this rocket ship ride that you couldn't let go, but you didn't want to let go, either. >> stahl: not only did mason launch a retail revolution, he brought the company to a place where, in this economy, they hire up to 150 new employees a

week. how many people work for groupon? >> mason: across all 46 countries that we're in, we have about 10,000 people. >> stahl: groupon's headquarters in chicago is part tech start- up, part old-fashioned call center. >> hi, this is sadie, calling with groupon. >> stahl: unlike most dot-com rocket ships, groupon looks like a real business. where most web sites rely on algorithms, groupon relies on actual human beings. >> and did you want to go ahead with the 25 for 50 for the mani- pedi deal, or...? >> stahl: what these human beings, the salespeople, do is think up deal ideas, then convince local merchants to offer them at half price. >> so, what we're going to do is actually customize a deal specifically to you. >> stahl: groupon has found out by trial and error how to present its deals. used to be male and female

subscribers got the same emails every day. now, groupon is tailoring its offers by age and gender. >> mason: yeah, it turns out that guys don't like deals on laser hair removal or pole dancing lessons. >> stahl: or brazilian bikini waxes? >> mason: yeah. >> stahl: the merchants don't necessarily make money; the offers are half-priced to begin with, and groupon takes nearly 50% of that. but it's a marketing tool that gets lots of people in the door. when the shedd aquarium in chicago ran a groupon, 14,000 people showed up. it's a group coupon-- a groupon. what you did was you took a spam business, a junk-mail business, and somehow made it entertaining and cool. >> mason: we do realize that we're sending people an email every single day, and that could get annoying. so there's got to be something else there that keeps you engaged and keeps you from unsubscribing. >> stahl: that something is the

absurdist humor in the daily deal write-ups. 400 writers and editors, more than most newsrooms, come up with hundreds of these pitches a day, with twists of phrases and logic. here's one for a dentist-- "humans developed smiles as a way to deflect predators in the wild and former bosses in the grocery store." the loopy write-ups give groupon its personality, which seems to seep down from the very top. andrew mason is known as a little whacky himself. as a gag, his executive washroom is a porta-potty. and look at this: >> exhale. step back in. >> stahl: can you name another c.e.o. with a demo on youtube in which you're sitting around in front of a christmas tree in your skivvies doing yoga? >> mason: umm... no. that's a huge problem. >> stahl: the problem is that he now runs a huge company, and his urge to be goofy makes him one of the most unlikely corporate c.e.o.s you'll ever meet.

>> mason: i think if there's any difference between me and a traditional c.e.o., it's that i've been unwilling to change myself or shape my personality around what's expected. >> stahl: so here's a question that you hear a lot-- is andrew mason ready to be a c.e.o.? >> mason: am i as experienced or mature or smart as other c.e.o.s...? >> stahl: of big companies worth as much as yours? >> mason: yeah. no, probably not. but there's something, i think, very useful about having a founder as the c.e.o. >> stahl: according to "forbes" magazine, it's so useful, groupon is the fastest=growing company ever. enter their offices and there's the "forbes" cover, but it's surrounded by other covers of

hi-tech has-beens, as if they're asking themselves: "could we be the next to fall by the wayside?" it's a good question. >> andrew sorkin: well, the greatest challenge to their business is that it's unclear that it's defensible. >> stahl: andrew ross sorkin, financial columnist for the "new york times" and host at cnbc, says the biggest downside is how easy the model is to replicate. >> sorkin: there are 500 other competitors out there that all want to do and be groupon. amazon is getting into this business. others are getting into this business. >> stahl: google. >> sorkin: google is getting into this business. >> stahl: giants. but what andrew mason will tell you is that, so far, they've killed them all off. so far. >> sorkin: so far, they have spent an extraordinary amount of money to market their business so that they've been able to beat back a lot of the competition. >> stahl: right. >> sorkin: the question is if you're spending as much money as they are, whether you can actually create a profit long term. >> stahl: that's given rise to

doubts about the very sustainability of the company. for one, they spend more money than they take in on such things as wooing new subscribers. and it's expensive to employ 10,000 people. by contrast, facebook has less than 3,000. >> sorkin: at the moment, they have yet to turn a profit. >> stahl: they've yet to turn a profit, at all? >> sorkin: at all. >> hi, thanks for calling groupon. this is bethany. how can i help you? >> stahl: add to that horror stories from merchants, like the baker who made 102,000 cupcakes for all the groupon buyers, but with the steep mark-downs, she lost $20,000. and businesses complain groupon customers come once, and never want to pay full price again. >> okay, i'm sorry about that. >> stahl: but mason was still the new boy wonder until the summer, when he decided to make groupon a publicly traded company and it had to open its books. what raised eyebrows were the accounting tricks that made their huge marketing costs disappear on paper.

and they also double-counted how much money they were bringing in. so, on their books, they made $60 million in 2010, when in reality they lost $420 million. analysts began calling groupon "unviable," "a ponzi scheme," and wondered if any grown-ups were minding the store. >> mason: there are things we would have done differently and we would have loved to avoid. >> stahl: but it really hurt you? it looked as though something was fishy. >> mason: i think the big thing about groupon is just people... people had never seen anything grow quite so fast. and that made people want to dig in and be skeptical and... >> stahl: no, but you contributed to it. you didn't put the honest revenue figure down, you left out marketing costs. it just... it seemed like a bush-league mistake. >> mason: i don't think it's fair to say that it wasn't an honest revenue figure, and a

bush-league mistake that... that our auditors looked at and thought was... like, smart people can get this stuff wrong. we're inventing a new industry. like, if we were smart, evil people, we would be more cunning and subtle in our evil ways, you know? >> stahl: at the time, mason couldn't address the mounting criticism because companies are prohibited from giving interviews in the lead up to going public. but his impatience drove him to do something that drew the wrath of the regulators-- he answered the criticisms in an internal memo to his 10,000 employees. and sure enough, it leaked. >> stahl: here's some of the adjectives that were used to describe you when that memo leaked: "thin-skinned, impetuous, and childish." >> mason: look, i'm not going to pretend like it's been fun to sit here and have something that we've poured our hearts into over the last three years and see it criticized while we have

our mouths taped shut. it's kind of like we've now been hazed, you know? we've now... we're like wolverine and our skin has been melted off. we've had adamantium fused onto our bones, and it has made the culture stronger as a result. >> stahl: i'm not sure what that means, but groupon ended up having a wildly successful opening day trading on nasdaq as a public company. on the first trading day, your personal worth jumped to $1.3 billion. are you checking the stock price every minute? come on? how often? >> mason: i checked it once yesterday afternoon. and then, i felt dirty and i haven't checked it again since. do you know? >> stahl: no, i don't. >> mason: now, i want to know. how's it doing? >> stahl: well, it's been zig- zagging just above and below the initial trading price. >> mason: you just hit buy? >> stahl: buy? i bought it. mason continues to expand the company.

he showed me how he's moving deals onto mobile devices. oh, i want to get pampered... but the questions remain-- will groupon become part of our lives like google and amazon, or will it be relegated to the dot-com dustbin? and will the founder have to tone it down? i saw you at nasdaq, i guess it was, and there you were in this armani kind of suit and a tie, completely shaved... >> mason: what's an armani type of suit? >> stahl: ...really nice suit, an expensive suit. was that the first tie you ever owned? do you even own a tie? did you rent the tie? >> mason: no. i own over four ties! yeah. >> stahl: did you think about showing up in a suit and tie for "60 minutes"? >> mason: no, i asked if i should. >> stahl: and? >> mason: and they said that i shouldn't. so maybe, you know what? maybe i am changing. because i might've not asked before.

sponsored by: >> good evening, french president nicholas sarkozy called for reform in the wake of the country's credit downraiding from triple-a to double-a plus. gas prices jumped and at the movie, "contraband" took in $24 million to win the weekend box office. i'm jeff glor. cbs news.

>> simon: the arab revolution keeps spreading, leaving chaos and turmoil in its wake. but one country has been untouched by all that, the tiny speck of a nation called qatar, wedged between saudi arabia and iran. there have been no protests or demonstrations there. that might be because the 250,000 qatari citizens are the richest people in the world, and there are no taxes. there isn't much democracy, either, but qataris don't seem to mind. the same family has ruled them for 150 years, and life couldn't be much better. today, qatar is not only wealthy-- it's powerful, admired or feared by everyone in the middle east. that's because of its television network, al jazeera, which has been the engine of the arab spring. the man behind it, the man behind everything there, is his highness sheikh hamad bin

khalifa al thani, the emir of qatar. the emir is the master of everything he surveys. all around him, revolutions are swirling, regimes are teetering, dictators falling. yet his desert country is an oasis of tranquility. you are surrounded, emir, by revolution. we call it the "arab spring." how have you managed to avoid it? >> emir sheikh hamad bin khalifa: we have started our qatari spring a long time ago. >> simon: to be precise, 16 years ago, when the emir overthrew his father in a palace coup and started creating a country which could startle anyone living anywhere else. i think americans are going to be shocked about a few things here. that there are no taxes. that electricity is free, health care is free, education is free. sounds like a paradise. >> khalifa: well, i welcome you in this paradise.

>> simon: the emir's paradise is rising from the sands along the western edge of the arabian gulf. in doha, qatar's capital, entire new neighborhoods have been built on land reclaimed from the sea. and the buildings have one thing in common-- bling. doha's skyline looks like it was designed by architects who didn't talk to each other, didn't like each other, and engaged in experiments they could never get away with at home. and a qatari can live anywhere without ever leaving home. a virtual venice is around the corner. rodeo drive is down the block. and there are world class restaurants in the ancient arab souk, which was built five years ago. fahad al attiyah, one of the royal family's army of advisers, took us for a drive. you were born here? >> fahad al attiyeh: yes, born in qatar. >> simon: there wasn't any of this? >> fahad al attiyeh: there wasn't, yes. >> simon: nothing?

>> fahad al attiyeh: nothing. >> simon: how far back do you have to go-- your grandfather, or your great-grandfather lived in tents? >> al attiyeh: my father. >> simon: your father lived in a tent? >> al attiyeh: yes. the amazing thing, it is my father's generation that transitioned from living in a tent to living in an urban environment, from commuting on a camel to commuting in a 747. and that transition within such a short period of time is astonishing. >> simon: the work is being done by a million-man army of immigrants. 94% of qatar's labor force is foreign-- filipinos, indians, nepalese, mainly- creating a home for a mere 250,000 qataris. paying for it? no problem. qatar sits on top of the third largest natural gas reserves on the planet. a new plant called "the pearl," turns those reserves into liquid fuels. it cost $18 billion and took five years to build. it is the largest, most sophisticated plant of its kind, and the centerpiece of the

emir's strategy to keep qatar rich. when we ran into him at its inauguration, he seemed genuinely proud. well, congratulations. now, you've got the biggest plant in the world. >> khalifa: oh, that's great, and i'm happy that they finish it. >> simon: indeed. on time, too. time is a precious commodity here-- everything's happening at once. they're finishing a new hospital the qataris say will be one of the most advanced in the world. there's a new concert hall, with a new symphony orchestra. the emir imported the musicians. six american universities have built campuses here, offering american degrees in the heart of the middle east. the museum of islamic art with a billion dollar collection opened last year. admission, of course, is free. >> sheik hamid bin jasim: everything is free. that become, like, a part of our culture. >> simon: sheik hamid bin jasim

is qatar's prime minister. >> jasim: even when the... people died, they were... we take care of them. >> simon: free funerals? ( laughs ) >> jasim: yes. >> simon: from cradle to grave... >> jasim: yes, yes. >> simon: ...everything's taken care of. >> jasim: that's... that's... we can make a logo. >> simon: this is a pretty good place to live. >> jasim: yes. we are living in good environments. let us pray that problems around us cool down. >> simon: those problems-- the chaos, violence and killings throughout the middle east-- are not cooling down at all. and many arab leaders say, to a large extent, it is the emir's fault. that's because of the television network he created 15 years ago. it's called al jazeera, and it does something unprecedented in the arab world. it covers the news. it's on the air 24 hours a day, broadcasts in arabic and english, and is widely considered to be the engine of

the arab spring. >> khalifa: i believe we made a good reform. >> simon: this was the first and the only network in the arab world that was independent. everyone else was just doing what their government told them to do. >> khalifa: of course, it caused us a lot of problem with the top people in the arab countries. >> simon: you say that al jazeera created problems for some leaders in the middle east. it created big problems. it got them overthrown. >> khalifa: well, i... i'm not sure if it's al jazeera was behind this. >> simon: he may not be sure, but others are. egyptians watched the tunisian revolution live on al jazeera, discussed it on facebook, and took to the streets. libyans watched the egyptians, yeminis watched the libyans, and the syrians watched them all. al jazeera has become the region's only real reality show. >> faisal al qasim: we arabs have been fond, over the years,

of hiding our dirt under the carpet. >> simon: faisal al qasim is the host of one of al jazeera's most popular talk shows. >> qasim: we are here to reveal everything, to cover everything. that's why they don't like us. we are talking here about arab governments, arab regimes. i'm not talking about the arab people. the arab people love al jazeera. >> simon: egyptians sure loved it last february. thousands of protesters in tahrir square watched themselves and their own revolution live on al jazeera. >> qasim: and nobody can negate the fact that al jazeera played a big role in what happened in egypt at the time. >> simon: here at al jazeera, are you covering the news or do you have an agenda? >> qasim: what is wrong with transforming the arab world from tyranny and despotism into a democracy? what's wrong with that? if there is an agenda, it's a very good agenda. >> simon: critics charge that al jazeera is not completely independent, that it's part of

the emir's plan to increase his clout in the region, something he's hesitant to admit. >> khalifa: actually, we don't have the influence. we are supporting the people of those countries who is asking for justice and dignity. >> simon: that's influence. >> khalifa: okay, if this is influence, i think this is a healthy influence. i think all the world should support this. >> simon: it was the emir's support that made it possible for the french, the british, and the americans to form a nato coalition to overthrow the libyan tyrant, moammar qaddafi. the allies said they wouldn't do it without an arab partner. the emir deployed six war planes to help enforce the no-fly zone, gave the rebels millions of dollars of weapons and military hardware, and didn't conceal where they came from. when qaddafi's compound finally fell, qatar's flag could be seen flying over the ruins.

>> this is the first fruitful coalition between the arabs and the nato to help an arab country. >> simon: how did you feel when you saw the qatari flag go up over qaddafi's old compound? >> khalifa: well, i believe that leaders should limit their stays. that's where the problem's happening. >> simon: that didn't really answer our question, so we tried again. how did you feel when you saw the qatari flag go up in tripoli? >> i was trying to get out of this question. >> simon: no kidding. ( chuckles ) >> yes. seriously, i was trying to get... well, i'm proud that we... we help the libyan people. let us put it this way. >> simon: must've been a great moment for you. >> it is... it is a new experience for us. >> simon: so is the emir's emergence as the most influential leader in the arab world. in england, he was hosted by the queen. and last april, president obama thanked him for helping promote democracy in the middle east.

but the emir also has good relations with hamas, the militant palestinian group that runs gaza, which the u.s. labels a terrorist organization. do the americans ever come to you and say, "hey, will you cut it out with hamas? it's really bothering us?" >> khalifa: they didn't like our relation with iran, with hamas, with hezbollah. but maybe if you go to the other side, the iranian, they don't like to see our relation with israel. hamas, they don't want to see our relation with israel. so it's... it's completely mixed. >> simon: the emir appears to have no ideology and, critics say, no loyalties. when his close personal friend, syrian president assad, refused to stop killing his people, the emir abandoned him. today, he talks tougher than any other world leader on what should be done in syria. would you be in favor of arab nations intervening in syria? >> khalifa: i think for... for such a situation, to stop the

killing, we have some... some troops should go to stop the killing. >> simon: the killing is worlds away from qatar. what you see here is contentment. there have been no protests, no calls for democracy. after all, what could an opposition offer that qataris don't already have? but the emir just bought himself some additional insurance. he raised the salaries of all qatari government workers by 60%; soldiers and policemen got 120%. the prime minister insists this has nothing to do with politics. >> jasim: we have one obsession, is how to continue to let the people live in the same standard. that's very difficult target. we are trying to do that target. >> simon: excellency, can you think of any other country in the world that has a better standard of living? >> jasim: well, there is good living standard in many places in the world.

but the main thing is what sort of quality of people you produce. we would like our people not to be spoiled by this. we need our children not to be spoiled by this. that's, i think, the big challenge for us. >> simon: and there's a bigger challenge-- here is qatar's military on parade at last month's national day celebrations. picturesque, but not very intimidating, not when your next door neighbors are iran and saudi arabia. so how does the emir keep his island of happiness afloat, when the seas are getting rougher every day? it often seems as if the basis of your foreign policy is to be friends with everyone. >> khalifa: don't you think this is a good policy for a small country? >> simon: yes, it is, if you can pull it off. ( laughter ) >> khalifa: well, we are trying.

>> welcome to the cbs sports update. i'm james brown with a look at the a.f.c. and n.f.c. championship game matchups for next weekend. the baltimore ravens defeated the houston texans this afternoon. they face the new england patriots next sunday at 3:00 eastern in the a.f.c. title game. in the n.f.c., the giants and packers are battling in green bay. the niners will face the winner in the n.f.c. championship game next sunday at 6:30 eastern. for more sports news and information, go to cbssports.com. ,,,,,,,,

>> safer: 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. the source of that talent and that confidence comes from our most remarkable organ, the one we understand least, the brain. what is it about jake barnett

that had him taking college courses at age eight and getting "a"s, and by 12, doing paid scientific research, and today at age 13, an honors college sophomore lecturing the crowd at his university science symposium? >> jacob barnett: and do any of you want my resume at all? >> safer: the untied shoelaces reveal either your average teenager, or the first telltale signs of the absent-minded professor, or both. surrounded by researchers often twice his age, jake is presenting his summer physics research project on p.t. symmetric lattice systems. >> jacob barnett: this has implications in fiber optics, electromagnetic signals, anything that requires, like, a light going through a cable. every number or math problem i ever hear, i have permanently remembered. >> safer: you just never forget? they... they never slip out the back door of your brain? >> jacob barnett: no.

>> safer: is it fun for you to do it? do you get a kick out of it? >> jacob barnett: yeah. >> safer: for jake, fun is reciting, from memory, the infinite series of numbers known as pi. >> jacob barnett: 3-point-1-4-1- 5-9-2-6-5-3-5-8-9-7-9-3-2-3-8-4- 6-2-6-4-3-3-8-3-2-7-9-5-0... >> safer: jake memorized more than 200 of pi's numbers in an afternoon. enough, enough. ( laughter ) and he did it just to test himself. >> jacob barnett: you want me to go backwards from there? >> safer: well, sure. >> jacob barnett: 3-2-3-9-7-9-8- 5-3-5-6-2-9-5-1-4-1-point-3. >> safer: bravo. he's not just parroting a textbook; he understands and analyzes the logic of higher mathematics. he can visualize and solve complex problems by using what he calls the "fourth dimension." just exactly what is the fourth dimension?

>> jacob barnett: it's hard to describe in terms of the typical three, because it's tangent to all the other ones. i'd be able to describe it if i had, like, a white board and, like, 30 minutes to describe it. it takes a while. it's a fourth dimension-- what do you expect? >> safer: the numbers appear to him as shapes that, he says, just build on one another. >> jacob barnett: so this is, for example, three-cubed, or 27. and then, if i want to do 54, i just stack another one onto it. >> safer: he says his mind is constantly buzzing with new physics problems and theories. when he runs out of wall space, he moves on to windows. remembering things so precisely, does that ever become a burden to you? >> jacob barnett: no, not at all. >> safer: no sense of overload? >> jacob barnett: i remember math and numbers. i don't remember other things. ( chuckles ) for example, if someone asked me where something is in the house, i tell them, "i don't know." >> safer: the oldest of four

kids, jake lives with his family in the suburbs of indianapolis. >> jacob barnett: these are my periodic tables, it's got all my elements. >> safer: he used the money he made from his summer research project-- $3,200-- to turn his bedroom into a science lab. >> jacob barnett: copernicus was the most recently named element... >> safer: for as long as he can remember, he has been fascinated by the mysteries of space. >> jacob barnett: saturn's my favorite planet-- not due to the rings, but due to some of its moons. >> safer: any ambition to be an astronaut? >> jacob barnett: not an astronaut-- that's, like, too dangerous. i'm going to be the guy controlling the astronauts. if anyone's an astronaut, it's going to be my brother. ( laughs ) >> safer: all work and only occasional play does not make jake a dull boy. what do you do for fun? >> jacob barnett: when it isn't anything academic? >> safer: no, i mean beyond the academics. >> jacob barnett: does looking up space articles online count? ( laughter ) pi-"a" cubed divided by g-t squared. >> safer: jake has a full scholarship at the joint indiana university-purdue campus in indianapolis, where he is an

honors student in math and physics. he may not be the tallest student on campus, but is surely among the brightest. he regularly gets the highest grades in his classes. >> jacob barnett: what happens if you have "c" sub "n" where it is proportional to "n?" >> safer: jake has been auditing classes here since the ripe old age of eight, when it became obvious to his parents that third grade was not going to be enough for him. what did your fellow students make of you? >> jacob barnett: everyone was thinking that mom was taking the class and she couldn't find a babysitter. >> kristine barnett: the students thought i was the student. >> safer: his parents, kristine and michael barnett, expected their son would quietly listen and learn, but even they were shocked when jake jumped right into scientific discussions. >> kristine barnett: the professor would ask questions and jake was answering them. and then, he took the final at the end and got an "a" on it, and suddenly the people at the university took notice of that and eventually invited him to attend the university. >> safer: that's pretty shocking, when an eight-year-old

aces a university astronomy course. weren't you impressed? >> jacob barnett: i guess i was impressed. i was just doing what i like to do. >> safer: no one could have predicted that jake would even make it to college. just before his second birthday, he began to regress-- stopped speaking and making eye contact. after consulting with several doctors, the diagnosis was autism. >> michael barnett: we went through speech therapy, physical therapy, developmental therapy, occupational therapy. therapists came to the home. >> kristine barnett: he was going further and further from our world into a world of his own. and i... i really was just baffled at how we were going to get him back out of that world. >> safer: and how did you get him back out of that world? >> kristine barnett: we realized that jacob was not happy unless he was doing something he loved. >> safer: which, even as a three-year-old, was math and science. his parents say the more he focused on the subjects he

loved, the more he began to communicate. >> kristine barnett: you could just see him just relax. you could just see him feel like, "thank goodness we're not working on something that i can't do today." >> safer: and how long did it take for him to, as you say, come back? >> michael barnett: by the time he was kindergarten age-- five, six-- he was still behind as far as speaking with others and socializing with others. but he was also light years ahead of everybody else. he was coming home asking us, "when am i going to learn something at school today? i want to learn algebra." >> safer: it was trying to keep jake challenged that led to a kind of double life-- elementary school by day and sitting in on college courses in the evening. by fifth grade, he dropped out of public school, and just to demonstrate that he was ready for college, he taught himself all of high school math in just two weeks. he was ten years old. >> kristine barnett: that was the most determined thing i've ever seen anybody do. he had to sit in a calculus

class to prove to the university that he could sit still. and jacob was like, "i'm going to participate in that class discussion. so if i need to learn algebra one, algebra two, geometry, trig, that's what i'm going to do." and he took a stack of books, and he sat down, and he just... >> michael barnett: ...went and taught himself all of it in two weeks. >> safer: not only that, he finished the entire state of indiana curriculum for grades six-12 in a little over a year. the barnetts, who have started a center for autistic kids called jacob's place, say that many of jake's symptoms of autism have disappeared. >> michael barnett: there are certain traits that are still there. and if you really, really knew what you were looking for, you could dig them out. but otherwise, you know, that... i got... ten-year-old kid, at that point in time, that just happens to be doing next level work and no one knew anything different. >> safer: your parents told us that you're very proud of your autism. >> jacob barnett: that, i believe, is the reason why i am

in college and i am so successful. it is the rise as to my love for math and science and astronomy. and it's the reason why i care. otherwise, i wouldn't have gotten this far. >> safer: joanne ruthsatz, a psychology professor at ohio state, has been studying child prodigies for the last 13 years. she believes there's a link between autism and prodigies. >> joanne ruthsatz: we know that child prodigies are having autistic relatives at a very high clip, and some of them have autism themselves. >> safer: she believes that what sets a prodigy with autism apart from other children with the condition is the prodigy's genes have been modified so that the genius emerges without many of the severe disabilities associated with autism. >> ruthsatz: in the general population of autism, 10% will have an autistic savant skill where they're exceptional at something, and they've only got that piece displaying itself. >> safer: she says for

prodigies-- be it in math, music, or art-- the key to the extraordinary talent is extraordinary memory. >> ruthsatz: they all share this incredible memory, each and every one of them. >> safer: in jake's case, he's 13 years old-- what's remarkable is not just this memory, but his vocabulary is so adult. >> ruthsatz: of course they speak like adults, they've picked up so much information along the way so early in their life, and continue to do so. >> safer: she says a talent like jake's is about one in ten million. >> ruthsatz: jake's extraordinary. he's picking up information at a rate that none of us could even imagine doing it. >> safer: she has tested jake and says he literally aces every intelligence and memory test. >> ruthsatz: imagine if everything you saw, you could remember. every word you heard, you could recall that. and then, you could integrate that information and come up with new ideas. that's what he's doing. >> safer: a demonstration-- dr. ruthsatz named 28 states in

random order. no surprise-- he was able to do it forwards and backwards in sequence with ease. and when asked again three months later... you still remember them? >> jacob barnett: yes. yes, i do. >> safer: in the same order? >> jacob barnett: and i could still go backwards. ( laughter ) >> safer: and backwards? give me five or ten. >> jacob barnett: kentucky, new mexico, nevada, florida, pennsylvania, wisconsin, north dakota, washington, missouri, texas, utah, colorado... >> safer: while some may dismiss jake's talent as simply a gift of remarkable memory, his physics professor says the boy is much more than a human calculator. is it just great memory or something else? >> yogesh joglekar: it is definitely something else. the great memory does help him, of course, because once he reads something, he remembers it. but what is more important is that he has the drive to learn more.

he definitely stands out as a powerhouse of raw talent. >> safer: professor yogesh joglekar oversaw jake's research project. their work was published in "physical review a." jake is the youngest person to be published in that prestigious physics journal. >> jacob barnett: the whole randomness thing-- that's, like, completely against all of physics. >> safer: he plans to continue his research, building on einstein's theory of relativity. his parents say he takes on these challenges with an easy grace. >> michael barnett: he has his own little tight-knit group of friends that he hangs out with, that he studies with. he leads study groups. i have college-aged girls calling the house, wanting to know if jake is available to study during finals. when i go to campus with him, it's like i'm walking around with elvis. >> safer: so far, the king seems to keep his celebrity status in check, more or less. >> jacob barnett: practically everyone knows who i am. >> safer: are you a star on this campus? >> jacob barnett: big man on campus. ( laughter )

>> safer: but the little big man says he enjoys nothing more than using his talent to help fellow classmates see the beauty he sees in the numbers. >> thanks, jake. >> jacob barnett: you're welcome. i kind of want to try to use that to end the whole math phobia thing. >> safer: because there's so many people like me and millions of others are scared of math, are scared of science, correct? >> jacob barnett: yeah. ( laughs ) >> safer: why is that so funny? you almost can't understand how anyone could be? >> jacob barnett: exactly. yeah. >> safer: jake is writing a book to help us overcome our fear of math, and he's on track to graduate at age 14, when he hopes to begin his ph.d. studies. >> go to 60minutesovertime.com to learn more about jake, groupon, and the proper way to pronounce "qatar". sponsored by lipitor. helmet. i took some steep risks in my teens. i'd never ride without one now. and since my doctor prescribed lipitor,

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