When I think of “disruptive” science, I remember the first pathbreaking scientist I saw: the late Nobel Laureate Oliver Smithies. In the presentation I heard him give, he reflected on his life and advised young scientists about their careers. “Very often ideas for research come from our experiences or memories,” he said. “It takes only one moment for the idea to occur, but it takes a lifetime sometimes to show that it works.”

Smithies thought it important to patiently pursue big ideas, even if that meant extended periods of low productivity. The advice was great — but following it today would likely be career suicide.

Smithies did his PhD research on a topic nobody cared about. He invented a machine, the osmometer, a device for measuring the concentration of particles in a solution, which no one ended up using. The publication from his dissertation was barely ever cited by other scientists. But for Smithies, this moment as a scientist in training was crucial: he acquired independence and learned how to do good research.