When I was in first year of physics in college, our professor said that he did his PhD thesis on the same material he was teaching us as Freshmen.
In Einstein's day, a physicist was said to be doing his best work between the ages of 21 and 30. Now, it takes until age 35 to start doing useful research. So what happens when the amount of time it takes to learn the background required to do original research is 70 years. 80 years?
There are several parameters that affect this such as increased educational methods, specialization and of course remarkable breakthroughs such as the ones of Einstein and Newton. But think about it. Soon, mankind will know so much that it will take an entire lifetime just to know enough to start doing meaningful work.
