No need to guess -- the answer to that question is "no". Universities started awarding PhD degrees at the (end of) the 19th century. If PhDs were a necessity f

No need to guess -- the answer to that question is "no". Universities started awarding PhD degrees at the (end of) the 19th century. If PhDs were a necessity for scientific breakthroughs, then there couldn't have been any scientific breakthroughs before the 19th century, a contradiction. QED. edit: but I got myself one just in case, anyway :)