There are a number of reasons why some countries publish more than others but it is no real surprise that the USA produces the most scientific papers. Over the period 1999-2009 there were 2.9 million scientific papers published in the USA according to Essential Science Indicators at Thomson Reuters (see infographic) (http://sciencewatch.com/dr/cou/2009/09decALL/). This is considerably more than the next two countries in the top 20…

Einstein once said, "A person who has not made his great contribution to science before the age of thirty will never do so."

Although Einstein himself did his most seminal work prior to his 30th birthday, this is not the case for all scientists. Alexander Fleming was 47 when he discovered penicillin, Andrew Wiles was 42 when he proved Fermat's theorem and Luc Montagnier was 51 when he discovered HIV with his colleagues. We have put together an infographic on this page showing 80…