Grapevine

By PAUL GRAY/

SAFE DEPOSITS. A decade ago, California tycoon Robert K. Graham caused a stir and a few snickers when he established the Repository for Germinal Choice. Its purpose: to make the sperm of brainy men (preferably Nobel prizewinners) available to brainy, childless women, who would then theoretically bear superintelligent babies. Three Nobel laureates contributed to this experiment, although the only one to announce his deposits was William Shockley (physics, 1956), a proponent of crackpot theories about the genetic inferiority of blacks. After ten years the repository has spawned 111 children, with 30 more on the way, but not a single one of them was sired by a laureate. Why? The advanced age of typical male Nobel prizewinners handicaps their sperm in the conception sweepstakes. The women have favored younger, if less celebrated, donors. As for the superkids, the repository does not track their progress after birth.

With reporting by DAVID ELLIS