Also in the early days there was more low-hanging fruit. You could make scientific discoveries by locking yourself in a room for a week and thinking deeply abou

Also in the early days there was more low-hanging fruit. You could make scientific discoveries by locking yourself in a room for a week and thinking deeply about something you read recently. Then come out and test it with items from your kitchen. Now it's harder to make breakthroughs without specialized equipment, and the area of interest has narrowed to a tiny sliver.