Big Ideas Three Nobels! Are we backing young minds today to pull off what Brian Schmidt, Peter Doherty, Rolf Zinkernagel did?
Mar 11, 2026
Rolf Zinkernagel, immunologist and 1996 Nobel laureate; Peter Doherty, immunologist, Nobel winner and science communicator; Brian Schmidt, astrophysicist and 2011 Nobel laureate. They recall serendipity, risky experiments and the young‑career conditions that enable breakthrough work. They debate funding, institutional culture, global shifts and how to protect time and freedom for big, risky science.
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How Small Labs And Serendipity Produced Big Discoveries
- Brian Schmidt recalled having a three-year job and spending only $8,000 of personal-level resources while accessing expensive telescopes to pursue risky ideas.
- Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty described a tiny John Curtin School lab, a “stupid” experiment that unexpectedly revealed an all-or-none immune discovery and upset established views.
Stable Environments Enable Risky Breakthrough Research
- Brian Schmidt argued creative research needs stability to take risks and survive failure, warning current systems incentivise incremental output and quantity over quality.
- He noted PhD-year pressures, KPI-driven publishing and early-career attrition reduce the chance of breakthrough discovery.
Fail Often Fail Fast And Pivot
- Embrace failure quickly and pivot: try novel experiments, stop failing approaches fast and follow surprising signals rather than chasing only publishable results.
- Brian warned that always getting publishable results means you're doing nothing original.
