The road to a Nobel prize is growing ever longer, with almost half of winners now (wait) more than 20 years from making a Nobel-worthy discovery to receiving the prize.
One analysis shows that the average time between publishing the work and receiving one of the science (prize) has nearly doubled in the past 60 years. "In the early 20th century, Nobel winners were often in (they) 30s, but now it is unheard of," says Santo Fortunato, published a 2014 analysis of Nobel prizewinners since the award's conception in 1901. His results showed that the time between winners' prizewinning research and their Nobel had (slow) increased over the years.
There are a number of possible reasons for this trend. It could be that the overall number of breakthroughs (increase) each year, so awards cannot keep up the number of people who deserve to be recognized. It is also the case that the importance of some works (realize) only years or decades later.
On the other hand, the lengthening gap could be sign that there has been a decrease in ‘disruptive' science— (importance) studies or discoveries that change the paradigm (范式) of their field. This could be causing the Nobel committees to focus more on the past.
