Why Are Revolutionary Scientists Young?

Einstein, Newton, Darwin, and Hawking are just some of the young scientists that have profoundly shaped science. Why is youth a key element in a revolutionary scientist. Note: this vlog contains a fair deal of conjecture. I invite healthy discussion and debate.

[DougVandegrift]

This is one reason why I had to step away from religion.  I love to feel accepted into society and have people talking highly of you, but humanity can't make progress until someone asks questions.  

[upandatom]

I didn't even know he had a blog channel! It's cool to talk about this kind of stuff sometimes. Will be back for sure :)

[ggharjan]

Is it just me or does anyone else feel super happy when they watch Veritasium's videos?

[ucasvb]

As an old undergraduate in physics, this notion depresses the hell out of me.

[emlmm]

I'm not sure I agree actually. Sure, many of the most famous discoveries were made by younger people, but I'd argue that those are really only a very small fraction of the total discoveries. This is especially apparent in mathematics. I'd say that discoveries made by older people tend to be more complicated and sophisticated than those made by younger people, if less revolutionary in a general sense, and as a result tend to be reported on and immortalized less, because they are more difficult for the public to understand. For example, Andrey Markov, who was a brilliant mathematician, and discovered, or created, the Markov Chain (which allows us to find the equilibrium state of a system of probabilities by exponentiating a matrix), did so when he was in his fifties, and it was, and is, still pretty groundbreaking in a number of scientific fields and applications, however it's not super easy to explain, so I'll bet fewer people in the public would know about it. Another example is the Fourier Transform, which is _so_ applicable to so many situations today that it's almost ludicrous that the term isn't common knowledge. Joseph Fourier was 54 when he devised it. Not that I'm saying only old people make great discoveries either; I just think that older scientists tend to go for more specialized and elaborate research in their given field; probably due _to_ their expansive knowledge, while younger people use their creativity to rethink more general assumptions, probably partially as a result of not having the same expansive comprehension of the specifics. And bear in mind, I say this as a _young_ student myself.

[ProfRandom]

Einstein's a good example in another way: His lack of preconceptions allowed him to grasp Brownian motion, the photoelectric effect, and special relativity all in 1905, but the *inertia* of his preconceptions utterly prevented him from being able to embrace quantum physics (which, ironically, his early papers helped to bring into being), right up to his dying moment....

[NikoxD]

Wow I only have a few years left to make a revolutionary discovery!

[jameswhyte]

keeps the sharks out? girl screams by getting attacked by shark 0:35

[PietSpaans]

I think the situation was kind of alike for Darwin, Einstein and Newton. They were in a non demanding job (sea travel, with a lot of time to contemplate, Newton was at home when Trinity College was closed because of the plague when he took the time to do the math his own way, to understand it more deeply., Einstein was working at a patent office and used his evenings to discuss things with his first wife. They did not have an obligation to publish like the young scientists of today.Maybe we should give young scientists some slack to think things through if they feel that desire. Princeton does just that but maybe the people that come to Princeton are already too old and accomplished to benefit from it.

The blanc page hypothesis is not correct at all, Darwin, Newton and Einstein were far from blanc pages, in an earlier comment I already stated that the works of Euclid were Einsteins favorite at 12 years of age, Newton was immersed in the work of Aristotle, Kepler and Galilei, Darwin was a typical naturalist that collected as much biological information as possible. His works are really full of details from all kinds of sources, but mainly on the animal and plant breeding of the day.

I think you have to familiarize yourself with the old stuff when still relatively young to make the right type of breakthrough in your early twenties. Maybe if you familiarize yourself too late with the old stuff it becomes too late to change it.

[Heruluin]

This video makes me think about the quote "Nobody told them it was impossible, so they did it."

[boyinapeatbog]

Oh shoot I'm 22 and I don't even know what the heck I'm doing with my life.

[MartinodePueblo]

Hey Derek. I'm 20 years old and was going through an designers block because of too much problems in my concept. This video motivated me so much, you have no idea. I put this video on half an hour ago or something like that. and at 04:57 i turned it off, got all my papers and sketching pen again and made incredible material. Thanks for the motivation! i'm young and i should do as much as possible with my healthy, young naivety! Great vid's on both channels btw! greetings from holland

[Nehmo]

Erasmus Darwin (1731 – 1802), the grandfather of Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882), wrote Zoonomia (1794–1796) before Charles was born. Zoonomia contains the essential concepts of evolution, and Charles even gives his grandfather credit. Charles refined the concept, and he presented it to the world, but he didn't claim to originate it.
Erasmus's statement, "the strongest and most active animal should propagate the species, which should thence become improved" is almost identical to the concept later called "survival of the fittest".

[pranav]

"keep practicing until its second nature", thats what you taught me today!

[lightsidemaster]

"Feel, don't think."
"Truly wonderful the mind of a child is."
"You must unlearn, what you have learned"
etc.

[ellyawesome]

That was pretty cool. I must utilise my young mind to it's full potential!!!! ;P

[aarontewelde]

1:02 "...and in that year, he was 22". Makes me feel so useless not having prepared myself to achieve anything significant at age 20.

[ChewieU]

You really made physics look fun for me and you helped me know what i want to study later (i am 13) i really want to thank you for this. Keep up the great work

[TrainTsarFun]

So many times at work I fix things that others cannot because they know too much. They tend to rule out potential problems because they think they cannot happen. Once a fellow worker spend 3 days trying fix a problem that I resolved in a matter of minutes. He had already ruled out what ultimately was the solution.

 Another thing I notice with a lot of young people is they think they are smart. I like what Newton said about his accomplishments and what is primary focus was later in life.

[DaanWaardenburg]

Don't vlog and drive when you need to hold the camera.