Comment by ktallett
14 hours ago
Disruptive work nowadays is not very popular with institutions and doesn't win you grants. What does win grants is plodding along on a same path usually towards some end goal that is the latest buzzword. Those who stay in academia all start aspirational and wish to change the world, but the system sucks it out of them.
nowadays? It's never been popular.
Yes, as nowadays we have the ability to simulate or experiment theories at a great speed. A century ago it was a lot harder so scepticism made sense as you couldn't easily prove your theory. You feel we should be able to take more risks now, but if anything we take as many or fewer, therefore I fear mavericks have become even less popular.
I was surprised that the article did not mention that Einstein was not originally given the Nobel prize for relativity because the Old guard did not like the work...
A nobel prize was very rarely given for theory, especially one that hadn't been stringently experimented on until the 50's to the -70's.
The photoelectric effect definitely was more solid to give out the prize on.
Saying this I think the Nobel prize is becoming less relevant, especially as nowadays one person is rarely the reason advancements are made.