The data remarkably concur with Albert Einstein's observation in 1942: "A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of 30 will never do so." "Scientific productivity indeed fades with age," Dr Kanazawa said. "Two-thirds [of all scientists] will have made their most significant contributions before their mid-30s." But, regardless of age, the great minds who married virtually kissed goodbye to any further glorious additions to their CV. Within five years of the wedding, nearly a quarter of married scientists had made their last significant contribution.



"Scientists rather quickly desist [from their careers] after their marriage, while unmarried scientists continue to make great scientific contributions later in their lives," Dr Kanazawa said. The energy of youth and the dampening effect of marriage, he said, were also remarkably similar among geniuses in music, painting, writing - and crime.

Previous studies have documented that delinquents are overwhelmingly male, and usually start off on the road to crime while in their teens. But those who marry well subsequently go straight, whereas those of the same age who remain unmarried tend to continue in criminal activity. Dr Kanazawa suggested that "a single psychological mechanism" was responsible for this: the competitive edge among young men to fight for glory and gain the attention of women. The study appears in the August issue of the Journal of Research in Personality. The British magazine New Scientist reports on it in this week's issue.

Agence France-Presse