Wow.. I wonder who the other big dot is, besides Einstein.

On topic:
1.
In the past one main factor would be the AVAILABILITY of information, or the ease of access to it. But we have the Internet now. So the availability factor has been replaced by the RELIABILITY factor. And with information sometimes being unreliable people are reluctant to accept the information, until it has been proven to be facts.

Another factor would probably be the NEED TO KNOW. A large percentage of our current population tend to just live life as it is. We don't see the need to improve in terms of knowledge. (though we know we need a degree or such to succeed in life, we tend study for the sake of getting the degree instead of studying to increase our knowledge).

Religion is also a factor to some, but I'll not go any further with that.
Similar to religion, getting used to past versions of information is also a reason people tend to resist new information. Eg. If a person told you he was from the future, chances are you wouldn't believe him. In the same sense, people also resist new information when the new information cannot be proven(similar to the point about reliability). Eg. the psychic realm - just an example -

2.
The answer to that is quite simple, and I vaguely quote my primary school science teacher : "If you don't know something, ask."
Well, obviously to expand the orange circle you don't just stop at asking, you probe further into the question and seek out the answer. The problem is that most people are reluctant to ask questions, that is probably what separates ourselves from geniuses like Einstein and Newton.

3.
I don't quite get why TS used the Nobel Prize as a standard. To me I think one factor would have to be the way some countries are run.
Countries like America, Russia, Japan have long since overcome, social boundaries that restrict their pursuit of knowledge. Race, Religion, and Rights? While some countries are still so caught up with racial, and religious disputes.

This post has been edited by Mesosmagnet: Jan 16 2010, 12:03 PM