Depletion of the low-hanging fruit in science

<p>There's this overreaching idea that science is harder every year because the <em>easy work</em> has already been done. Is it possible to have another Newton anytime soon? </p> <p>Why scientific progress seems to be slower may be due just to perception. It may be that incentives work against truly innovative work [<a class="litnote tooltip" href="/literature/@bhattacharya2020">@bhattacharya2020<span class="tooltiptext">Stagnation and Scientific Incentives</span></a>], or it may be that <a class="wikilink" href="/science_after_wwii_has_stagnated/">Science after WWII has stagnated</a>. </p> <p>The idea of the low-hanging fruit has been looming around always. I seem to remember a story in which Planck's father tried to steer him out of Physics, "because everything was already invented."</p>