Since his own time and for the next five hundred years the name Leonardo da Vinci has been synonymous with “genius.” Others who have shared that title – Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein, for example – usually excelled in one particular field or area of science. Leonardo has seemed to loom above them all in his range of interests and apparent expertise, which included art, aerodynamics, anatomy, astronomy, botany, geology, hydraulics, optics, physics, and numerous technologies of warfare. However, our admiration for this omnivorous curiosity has led to some misconceptions about his legacy. The truth of the matter is that Leonardo's scientific contributions, unlike those of Darwin and Einstein, were negligible, and many of his inventions, although clever and even prophetic, could not have actually functioned. Of his many scientific and industrial interests, he appears to have mastered only certain, basic aspects of engineering, and only in the practice of art did he exceed the accomplishments of most of his contemporaries. Only in art was he truly a successful innovator.