henry copeland:
people who excel in abstract fields, like art or physics, tend to be younger than those who win prizes in fields that require more context, like history or medicine. Another 1977 study found that physics Nobel winners were 36 on average when they did their prize-winning work, while chemists were 39 and medical doctors were 41.
So why the late 30s? The most obvious factor is education: Scientists spend ages 5 through 18 in school, and then ages 18 through 30ish getting their academic degrees. Then a few years of learning on the job, and presto! You dig up an uncertainty principle. Meanwhile, scientific breakthroughs tend to be less common in old age because we invest less in learning as we get older, and our skills gradually become less relevant.
There's evidence from the humanities, though, that genius doesn't decline with age at all. Over 40 percent of both Robert Frost's and William Carlos Williams' best poems were written after the poets turned 50. Paul Cézanne's highest-priced paintings were made the year he died.
- www.theatlantic.com
- www.theatlantic.com