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Leonardo da Vinci was the original Renaissance man. He’s best known for having painted the Mona Lisa but he was also an engineer, a musician, a military weapons designer, a futurist and an unparalleled inventor. With remarkable foresight, da Vinci’s accomplishments came before Newton’s theory of gravity, Darwin’s The Origin of Species - and even before the world was known to be round. His body of work continues to inspire, but who are the Renaissance people of today? Premiering Sun., May 14 at 7 p.m. ET/8 p.m. PT on Discovery Channel - and simulcast in High Definition on Discovery HD - da Vinci: Unlocking the Genius looks at the lives and works of several contemporary masters of medicine, art, military strategy and technology - all inspired by da Vinci.

Hosted by Kevin Brauch (Thirsty Traveller), this one-hour special travels to Chicago, Calgary, Italy and the U.K. to meet these "modern Leonardos" and discover how they are leaving their mark on the world and, in the spirit of da Vinci, are breaking the barriers of art and science today. Filmed in HD and featuring dramatic CGI, detailed 3D models and super macro photography, see how these modern-day inventors and their creations are continuing the legacy of Leonardo.

Highlights include:

"Building Leonardo’s Dreams" - See how artisans in Gabrielle Niccolai’s Teknoart workshop in Florence, Italy, are bringing da Vinci’s inventions to life, mixing modern and ancient techniques to build miniature models of da Vinci’s 500-year-old sketches. See how da Vinci’s designs go high-tech, as these artists create technical drawings from computer scans to determine the exact proportions. Oxford University professor Martin Kemp examines da Vinci’s thought process behind these creations and why these ideas are still relevant to modern engineering.

"Dr. Leonardo" - In Cambridge, England, heart surgeon Francis Wells reveals what he has learned from studying da Vinci’s anatomical drawings - and how these 500-year-old sketches helped Wells pioneer better open-heart surgery techniques.

"War Machines and Horse’s Head" - In Chicago, Bret Gould, a toymaker/National Guard reservist; and Matt Bins, a builder and film props director, have joined forces to recreate da Vinci’s deadliest inventions: the catapult and the armoured tank. Then, track the progress of Studio Y Creations in Calgary working to bring da Vinci’s greatest obsession to life - the seven-metre tall horse that Leonardo laboured over for 16 years for his patron, but never finished.

"Singing Plants?" - Italian environmental designers, Lorenzo Brusci and Maurizio Geppetti, have created a sonic garden in Florence, where natural material interacts with sound and light to create an unusual oasis where plants sing and flowers play experimental sounds in this homage to da Vinci’s deep respect for nature.

"Inventrepreneur" - At the M.I.T Fab Lab, director Neil Gershenfeld is working on the seemingly impossible: a machine that will one day fabricate any item on demand. Gershenfeld imagines a day where everyone will have a Fab Lab at home capable of creating virtually anything - rather than shopping for an item at the store, simply download the software online that will build what you need with the automated Fab Lab at home. Then, meet inventor Dean Kamen, best know for his Segway and Ibot inventions and see what he’s dreaming of next.

"Camping on Mars" - Andreas Vogler and Arturo Vittori are the inventors of the Desert Seal, a 6kg backpack-sized inflatable tent for extreme environments. The high-tech contraption - made from the same aerospace technologies used for parachutes and emergency inflatables - looks like it’s more inspired by sci-fi than da Vinci. But Vogler and Vittori - like da Vinci - took their inspiration from nature and thanks to the camel, they’ve created a functional and efficient structure that may one day be used on Mars.










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