Think of the brain power represented in this one image....

[TheKentuckian]

6. Are you certain that similar or maybe greater brain power has subsequently been assembled

but the output isn't so easily matched because there is less low hanging knowledge fruit now requiring greater technology and much more difficult work to build off that previous foundation?

I'm not saying that is the case but I do think it is more than possible that equal impact discoveries will take even more brains, utilizing much better tech to expand the limits of observation to move to the next levels.

We also cannot minimize the investment paradigm being different now, with less patience for investing that doesn't turn a corporate profit somehow even at the University level and that substantial funding most times will require corporate investment, which has to parlay quickly into profits soaking up the best a day brightest and forever limiting their horizons.