Comment by Jun8

Excellent optimistic post in a sea of negativity, and with actual suggestions, too. After reading, my mental image is this: think of Olympiads in Ancient Greece.

* A weightlifter was only awarded a laureate if he were able to lift a heavy stone (have no idea what they were lifting, for illustrative purposes only :-)

* Along comes Archimedes who invents what we would call an exoskeleton. Now any regular guy can lift twice as much as last year’s athlete.

* What to do? You can cancel the Olympiads, but they are actually useful as training, motivation, etc So now you have to give the prize on other factors, eg how well he can lift, has he opened a gym in the city, etc

BTW, physics and bio are not exempt, so those researchers better read and try to stay ahead.