Is Einstein The `Last Great GENIUS

by **J The Kidd** Mon Dec 08, 2008 1:43 am

Major breakthroughs in science have historically been the
province of individuals, not institutes. Galileo and Copernicus, Edison
and Einstein, toiling away in lonely labs or pondering the cosmos in
private studies.

And it is harder now to achieve scientific greatness. A study of
Nobel Prize winners in 2005 found that the accumulation of knowledge
over time has forced great minds to toil longer before they can make
breakthroughs. The age at which thinkers produce significant
innovations increased about six years during the 20th century.

Don't count the individual genius out just yet, however.

A balance between individual and institutional approaches is the best
idea, according to a new theory by a Duke University engineer Adrian
Bejan, who thinks institutions benefit most from the co-existence of
large groups that self-organize naturally and lone scientists coming up
with brilliant new ideas.

However, individual big thinkers didn't disappear. Bejan argues they
continued to thrive. He thinks his "constructal theory," which he began
describing in 1996, might explain why.

those of support, measured by tangible factors such as funding and lab space.

"Successful research groups are those that grow and evolve on their own
over time," he says. "For example, an individual comes up with a good
idea, gets funding, and new group begins to form around that good idea.
This creates a framework where many smaller groups contribute to the
whole."

The next Einstein?

Some might argue that the nature of genius is such that it can't be quashed, regardless.

Those who use their minds to great ends are known to work at it. A
35-year study in 2006, which looked at mathematically gifted children
to see what they ended up doing with their lives, revealed the next
Einstein might be a baby now, or perhaps is yet to be born.

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