The “Eureka” Moment Arrives Later
Conventional wisdom is that big scientific discoveries are made by the supple minds of the young. Albert Einstein famously said, “A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.”
But the age at which star scientists make their biggest discoveries or have their greatest insights has been rising since Einstein did his pathbreaking work at age 26 in 1905. The “age of invention,” as economist Benjamin F. Jones of the Kellogg School of Management puts it, is rising. Therein lies a threat to prosperity.