Thomas Kuhn argued famously in "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions" that Science was a young person's game, and that most scientific breakthroughs were made by by young men or researchers new to the field in question. And Lakatos has made one of his criteria of an advancing research programme the ability of that programme to attract a steady stream of new, young recruits.
Of course these claims has been challenged. Wray, for example, has argued that:
...middle-aged scientists are responsible for initiating more scientific revolutions than young scientists given the proportion of each group in the total population of scientists.
But nobody working in the sociology/history of science has ever suggested that the goals of science are best advanced by the Old Timers League, which is essentially what we have above.
And to the mob at Steve's place, where comments of mine have been suppressed again. This is not a variant of the "argument of authority"; its a statement of the sociological facts of Science.
(PS. Kudos to anyone that can slap names on all the deniers pictured above, and anyone who can pick out the one not associated with Climate Change Denial get a special heads-up.
