> where bored rich folk could dedicate themselves to one upping each other in the discovery game their peers and recent predecessors had invented. There were ce

> where bored rich folk could dedicate themselves to one upping each other in the discovery game their peers and recent predecessors had invented. There were certainly cheaters then, too, but the whole thing was very insular and the only people who even cared about it were the people who were in on the game themselves. So excelling within the rules and elaborate demonstrations of the game were all part of the club sport. I see this meme about the early scientists a lot. Unfortunately, these first early scientists are not so easily categorized. I would encourage others to delve into the biographies of these progenitors. It is true, some were very much in the vein of this meme. But many were much more complicated individuals. For example, Darwin is about as blue blooded as it comes. Yet Origin of Species has a very long section at the beginning where Darwin painstakingly goes over all the scientists before him that that in any small way had already discovered evolution. Another good one is that while digging potatoes with his hands at the family farm in his native New Zealand, Rutherford got the news that he had been awarded a scholarship to study physics at Cambridge under William Thomson (Lord Kelvin). Many other scientists came from very 'low' births. But science is a 'strong-chain' domain where only the 'correct' ideas survive. Anyone can, and did, contribute despite those obstacles.