The burden of knowledge describes the difficulty of adding to a scientific field as the amount of previous work that must be understood increases over time.
[1] Theory and empirical studies reflect the case that researchers and innovators are not born with the required expertise and must first undertake education.
With accumulating information and discoveries, the time to digest and improve on extant knowledge takes longer.
[3] Prominent examples of highly effective team research in basic science include those of Nobel Prize awardees Francis Crick and James Watson's work on DNA structure, Yang Chen-Ning and Tsung-Dao Lee's work on parity violation, and Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman's mRNA vaccine discoveries and development.
[7][8] Christian Turner (Professor of Law) uses the term "burden of knowledge in a different way,[9] referring to situations where one may be better off not knowing things, for example avoiding painful and uncomfortable details of one's health.