{"id":21962,"date":"2023-04-02T08:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-04-02T06:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/?p=21962"},"modified":"2023-04-02T13:20:09","modified_gmt":"2023-04-02T11:20:09","slug":"at-what-age-do-scientists-tend-to-produce-great-ideas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/sciencesurf\/2023\/04\/at-what-age-do-scientists-tend-to-produce-great-ideas\/","title":{"rendered":"At what age do scientists tend to produce great ideas?"},"content":{"rendered":"

It took me some time to relocate the paper that was discussing this topic. I first thought of\u00a0 PNAS<\/a> back in 2011 but the plot that I was looking for is in\u00a0 a Scientometrics 2019<\/a> article.<\/p>\n

Take home message: It may be the your first or your last paper in your career that will have the biggest impact\u00a0 while the overall probably is highest at age 44.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
https:\/\/link.springer.com\/article\/10.1007\/s11192-019-03065-4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Another paper<\/a> (with different source data) moves the curve to the left but unfortunately methods are not clearly described.<\/p>\n

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https:\/\/papers.ssrn.com\/sol3\/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2389203<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For example, in contrast to Einstein, 93% of Nobel Prize-winning scientific breakthroughs have come from individuals beyond age 26, and even geniuses who emerge early may bloom more fully at more advanced ages. Einstein\u2019s theory of general relativity, perhaps his greatest contribution, came largely in his early to mid-thirties. Copernicus completed his revolutionary theory of planetary motion around age 60. Mozart\u2019s most famous operas came in his thirties, and Steve Jobs produced by far his most commercially successful innovations in his late forties and early fifties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

And here is a third paper<\/a>, that shows that the interval widens at 65 while the mean performance remains stable.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
doi.org\/10.1073\/pnas.2006653117<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

 <\/p>\n

\n CC-BY-NC Science Surf , accessed 15.04.2026<\/span>\n <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It took me some time to relocate the paper that was discussing this topic. I first thought of\u00a0 PNAS back in 2011 but the plot that I was looking for is in\u00a0 a Scientometrics 2019 article. Take home message: It may be the your first or your last paper in your career that will have … Continue reading At what age do scientists tend to produce great ideas?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[206,2141,4143,4142],"class_list":["post-21962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-note-worthy","tag-age","tag-nobel","tag-productivity","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21962","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21962"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21962\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21979,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21962\/revisions\/21979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wjst.de\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}