He is a phenomenon of our age. Skinny, spotty, bespectacled, obsessive, good at maths, he is the computer nerd. By the age of 12 he had invented a virus. By 16 he had written a sophisticated interactive program that challenged the global giants. By 20 he was a millionaire and on the way to a stock market flotation, a mansion in California and a charitable foundation to distribute software to the Third World.

Blake Ross, the Miami teenager who was designing virtual cities on screen at seven, may not be spotty and is a pianist and writer, so hardly qualifies as a nerd. But he is already laying effective siege to the corporate profits of the mighty Microsoft. He has invented a net browser faster and more versatile, that is apparently immune from most viruses, can zap even the first pixel of spam and can support all the websites on the internet. Honour, acclaim and job offers have followed him to Stanford, where he is surfing the wave to stardom while universities, blue-chip companies and millions of Americans surf his invention.

Two centuries ago prodigies composed symphonies, wrote sonnets or picked up the paintbrush. Nowadays genius is largely virtual. Young brains once teased by falling apples are delving instead into the mathematics, the artistry and even the philosophy of programming. The result is a better picture on our screens, more limpid music from our computer speakers and an artificial intelligence that can play a mean game of chess and compose passable poetry. Until now, Microsoft had a monopoly on our virtual civilisation. Mr Ross has found another door to the future, faster, better and cheaper. Newton would be proud.