Leonardo da Vinci was born in 1452, and was a painter, architect, inventor, and student of all things scientific. His natural genius crossed so many disciplines that he epitomized the term “Renaissance man.” Today he remains best known for his art, including two paintings that remain among the world’s most famous and admired, Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci believed, art was indisputably connected with science and nature. Largely self-educated, he filled many secret notebooks with inventions, observations and theories. DaVinci was lauded in his time as a great artist, his contemporaries often did not fully appreciate his genius, the combination of intellect and imagination that allowed him to create, at least on paper, such inventions as the bicycle, the helicopter and an airplane based on the physiology and flying capability of different birds.