By: John Elliott and Lois Rogers

May 29, 2005, The Sunday Times (London)

RESEARCHERS investigating the achievements of thousands of innovators have established that 29 is the age at which you are most likely to have your first big, original idea.

The age represents the optimum combination of education and energy levels required for great ideas to emerge, according to the study.

The findings show that for an individual to dream up a new idea, they first have to assimilate far more information than previous generations in order to add to what is already known.

Absorbing the level of learning required to innovate now consumes the first three decades of life. "If one is to stand on the shoulders of giants, one must first climb up their backs, and the greater the body of knowledge, the harder this climb becomes," says the report, funded by America's National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER).

The NBER studied the ages of 55,000 patent holders for new inventions and concluded that the age at which the creative spark ignites has risen to 29. They found that the average age for an inventor to have his Eureka moment is increasing by 0.6 years each decade.

However, the wait is even longer for true genius to show. In the past century the age at which great inventors and Nobel prize winners made their life-changing discoveries increased by six years, with the average now just short of 40.

It is not just ideas in science and engineering that peak at 29, either. Artistic achievement also seems to flourish at the same age. Quentin Tarantino wrote and directed the acclaimed film Reservoir Dogs at 29 while Stella McCartney, the fashion designer, launched her own label at Gucci just before turning 30.

In a move that set him on his way to a fortune in broadcasting, Chris Evans launched the TFI Friday game show on Channel 4 at 29. Freddie Mercury, the late rock star, wrote and recorded Bohemian Rhapsody at the same age - although he was arguably a late developer, because the average age for brilliance to emerge in the 1970s would have been a couple of years earlier.

By contrast Alexander Graham Bell, although 29 when he invented the telephone in 1876, was a relatively late developer as the research suggests that 19th-century innovators were generally much younger.

For Dame Anita Roddick, the Body Shop entrepreneur, who was formulating her trendsetting ideas for cosmetics retailing in her late twenties, age is the key. She believes that discontentment and dissatisfaction with what is on the market are the driving forces behind youthful innovation.

"You can't overestimate this thing of wanting to do your own thing," said Roddick. "You have more in common with a crazy person than with a business school. People get an idea. They become obsessed with it and want to push it as far as they can.

"That usually happens when they've done enough other things. A lot of people set up enterprises because they get tired of the system."

Harry Cragoe, founder of P J Smoothies, the drinks company, got his business idea in California and started trading 12 years ago - also at 29. He feels the optimism of youth is crucial: "I never thought the company was ever going to be anything other than a success."

Some believe the development of an innovative streak in the late twenties has more to do with a lack of domestic and family commitments rather than knowledge accumulation.

"From a business point of view there is something special about that age because you are willing to take risks," said Stelios Haji-Ioannou, who founded the airline easyJet shortly before his 29th birthday.

"You feel you can achieve a lot more than someone who is older, who has had experience of failure, has more responsibilities and has more to lose."

Benjamin Jones, author of the NBER report, believes it demonstrates that the notion of a renaissance man, such as Leonardo da Vinci, no longer exists. Da Vinci was a famous polymath, able to simultaneously paint masterpieces and invent complex machines such as a prototype glider.

Jones points to the development of the microchip to reinforce his point: "The microprocessor was one person's aspiration but several people's invention. It is the story of researchers with circumscribed abilities working in a team."