Apparently this isn't a new problem...
"(Archimedes') passion for geometry, Plutarch adds, "made him forget his food and neglect his person, to that degree that when he was occassionally carried by absolute violence to bathe, or have his body annointed, he used to trace geometrical figures in the ashes of the fire, and diagrams in the oil on his body, being in a state of entire preoccupation, and, in the truest sense, divine possession with his love and delight in science.""
Found in the book Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.
