Is the science of great discoveries increasingly elitist?

What characteristics are behind scientific discoveries? An investigation attempts to answer this and other questions in which the profile of 761 great scientific discoveries from the year 1600 to our time has been analyzed, of which 533 were awarded Nobel Prizes (awarded since 1901).

The study was carried out by Alexander Krauss, from the Institute of Economic Analysis (IAE, attached to the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC) in Spain) and the London School of Economics in the United Kingdom.

The author of the study compares factors such as age, training, place of origin and gender of the researchers. What emerges is the general image of an increasingly complex and more elitist science, with scientists who have greater training and this is more interdisciplinary and who make discoveries at an older age than in the past. In the same way, the study shows a science that is strongly biased towards men, although a changing trend has been observed since 2000.

The results suggest that more discoveries could be made if scientific agencies and research institutions offered greater incentives for researchers to work to counteract the common trend of narrow specialization and instead encourage interdisciplinary research that combine novel methods in various fields.

According to the results of this work, 88% of the great discoveries since the year 1600 were made by researchers with a doctorate; a proportion that increases to 96% for all Nobel Prize discoveries. Only 10 (2%) of the Nobel Prize-winning discoveries were made by researchers with only a bachelor's degree. Among them are Leo Esaki, Ivar Giaever and Brian Josephson, who won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1973 for their work on tunneling semiconductors, superconductors and supercurrent. However, since 2000, all findings have been made by professors with a Ph.D.

54% of the discoveries awarded the Nobel Prize (and 42% of those not awarded) were made by scientists who had completed two or more degrees in different academic fields, which points to greater interdisciplinarity.

“Throughout history, dozens of great discoverers completed at most only secondary education, including Faraday, Tesla and Dalton,” the author notes. However, “by acquiring knowledge and with the help of newly developed instruments, these scientists were able to make important discoveries.” That is, university education facilitates knowledge and training, but “it has not always been a necessary condition for making discoveries in the past,” Krauss highlights.

Science is increasingly elitist

Science is increasingly elitist: 30% of all discoveries were made by scientists from the top 25 ranked universities, which can give greater access to sophisticated resources and instruments. In the disciplines of Astronomy, Economics and Social Sciences, most of the discoverers were in one of the top 50 universities.

Another factor that has changed is age. “We observed that before 1900, 30% of discoveries occurred before the age of 32, a percentage that decreased to 23% between 1901 and 2000, but since that year it has dropped to less than 6%. The average age at the time of discovery went from 38 years for those made between 1901 and 1950, to 40 years between 1951 and 2000, and to 50 years between 2001 and 2022,” explains the author of the study. “As science has expanded, the level of complexity of studies increases along with the level of sophistication of scientific methods and instruments,” adds the author, which requires more years of training.

The gap in years between discovery and recognition with the Nobel Prize increases over time in different scientific fields, illustrating the current delay in recognizing and selecting important scientific advances.

Women only represent 3% of Nobel Prize winners

The work, which also assesses gender disparities, shows that innovative science remains heavily biased towards men. Women represent only 5% of all scientists who made a major discovery and only 3% of all Nobel Prize winners. By disciplines, only 2% of Nobel Prize winners in Physics correspond to women, while the proportion is 6% in Astronomy and 7% in Medicine.

Among the women who have made revolutionary contributions, the discovery of radium and polonium by Marie Curie stands out; Ada Lovelace's work in early computer programming; and Donna Strickland's research into the development of high-intensity ultrashort laser pulses used in surgery.

A number of notable discoveries have largely been made by women who did not receive recognition or a Nobel Prize for their work, such as Rosalind Franklin, who applied the X-ray diffraction method to identify the double helix structure of DNA. .

One explanation for this trend is related to the fact that “women have been systematically discriminated against in access to education and science throughout history. Unfavorable norms regarding the role of women in science have begun to improve since the second half of the 20th century and especially in the 21st century. Consequently, we observe a positive trend: more than half of all Nobel Prizes awarded to women are after the year 2000,” explains the author.

Today's approach to conducting scientific research has changed greatly in some respects from the approach taken several centuries ago, but it has changed little in some other respects. (Image: Amazings/NCYT)

Dominance of the United States and the United Kingdom after World War II

The study also evaluates other factors such as the geographic location, religious affiliation and conditions in the country of the Nobel laureates. More than 90% of discoveries up to 1900 were made by scientists living in Europe, but that proportion fell to 41% during the period between 1900 and 1999.

Among the causes, the consequences of fascism in Germany are pointed out. This country had led the Nobel prizes until 1930, with 24% of the discoveries, followed by Great Britain, which represented 16%. However, as a result of the rise of fascism and the Second World War, both great scientists worldwide and the main journals and institutions moved from Germany to the United States and the United Kingdom, countries that currently dominate the ranking of Nobel Prize winners. . Finally, the increase in discoveries made in East Asia stands out, where approximately 6% of the discoverers are located since 2000.

The study is titled “Science's greatest discoverers: a shift towards greater interdisciplinarity, top universities and older age.” And it has been published in the academic journal Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, from the Nature group. (Source: Mercè Fernández / CSIC)