Let's Hear it for the Old Guys

Wisdom still rules and age and intelligence is paramount. For recent Nobel Prize winners, age is just a number. 9 out of 10 recent winners in 2017 are over the age of 70. Winner Rainer Weiss is 85 years old and a physics expert. Albert Einstein famously said that “a person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so.” This past year’s Nobel Prize winners proved how wrong Einstein was on this one.

Just in the physics category three men ages 77. 79 and 85 were winners in 2017. Kip S. Thorne is 77, Barry C. Barish is 82 and Ranier Weiss is 85 years old so there is hope for most baby boomers to still make a serious contribution to society before they die.  These guys were honored for their work in gravitational waves conducted in 2015.

In fact 9 out of the 10 Nobel winners in science or  economics in 2017 were over 70 years old with the youngster being Michael W. Young , yes his name is Young, who is 68 years old. He is one of a trio of American winners in physiology or medicine for their work on circadian rhythms. Circadian rhythms have to do with sleep disorders. They are the disruptions in a person’s circadian rhythm a name given to the “internal body clock” that regulates the (approximately) 24- hour cycle of biological processes in animals and plants.  

While some of the winners began their work as younger men, in most cases they made important refinements well past age 50. The 2017 winners were no fluke. It appears that genius level work is happening later in life much more often. Bruce Weinberg coauthored a study that looked at when Nobel laureates did their prize winning work. For physics winners the age was 37 years old in 1905. Today the ages is slightly over age 50. So, are people getting smarter later in life, or does life get in the way of their studies and it takes longer to achieve their educational goals?

The trend for older folks to accomplish their educational goals is not just in the field of physics and not just among Nobel Prize Winners. One of the most important patent filings in the past year came from researchers at the University of Texas at Austin who developed a cheap, fast charging battery that could revolutionize electric vehicles. The team leader in that patented discovery was whopping 95 year old John Goodenough. So, tell those youngsters to grow up, they still have a lot of work to do.

 The 2017 top 10 old great smart contributing to society Nobel Prize Winners are: Barry C. Barish, 82. Jacques Dubochet, 75, chemistry, Joachim Frank, 77, chemistry, Jeffrey C. Hall, 72, medicine, Richard Henderson, 72, chemistry, Michael Rosbash,73,medicine, Richard H. Thaler,72,economics, Kip S. Thorne,77,physics, Rainer Weiss,85,physics, and Michael W. Young,68 young years old at 68 in medicine.