Young geniuses might have once made nearly all of the significant breakthroughs in science, but nowadays that's doesn't seem to be the case, a new study suggests. Bruce Weinberg, professor, economics, is co-author of a study published in the November 7 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looking at Nobel Prize winners over the last century and casting doubt on the idea that one must be youthful to achieve scientific breakthroughs.

Weinberg and his co-author Benjamin Jones, a business professor at Northwestern University, analyzed 525 Nobel Prizes awarded between 1901 and 2008 in physics, chemistry and medicine. Results showed that before 1905, about two-thirds of winners in all three fields did their prize-winning work before age 40, and about 20 percent did it before age 30.

But by 2000, great achievements before age 30 nearly never occurred in any of the three fields. In physics, great achievements by age 40 only occurred in 19 percent of cases by the year 2000, and in chemistry, it nearly never occurred.

“The image of the brilliant young scientist who makes critical breakthroughs in science is increasingly outdated, at least in these three disciplines,” said Weinberg.

The Nobel Prize, one of the most prestigious academic achievements, is an award won increasingly by people in their late 40s, according to Weinberg. The time it takes to become a working scientist now compared to 1905 partly explains why award-winning achievements take longer, Weinberg said.

Read the entire press release, courtesy of Jeff Grabmeier, Ohio State Research Communications, http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/nobelage.htm