Despite outliers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a new analysis based on 19 studies involving 34,000 high achievers across multiple disciplines — including Nobel laureates, top chess players, Olympic champions, and elite musicians — found that individuals who achieved peak performance early in life were not always the same people to reach high success in adulthood. 

“Across the highest adult performance levels, peak performance is negatively correlated with early performance,” the report, which was published in the journal Science, said.

The researchers, led by Arne Güllich of RPTU Kaiserlautern-Landau in Germany, noted that prodigies often specialized in a single discipline, pigeonholing themselves in a particular field early in life. By contrast, late bloomers found success across multiple fields.

The study provides key insights into long-debated scientific inquiries into the origins of elite knowledge. While many parents may assume that helping their kids specialize early in life prepares them for successful careers, the latest research suggests otherwise. Early field-specific development can provide short-term success. However, longer-term success is more common among late bloomers.

“World top-10 youth chess players and later world top-10 adult chess players are nearly 90% different individuals across time,” the researchers wrote, suggesting that those who bloom early in life don’t tend to reach the height of their success at the same time late bloomers hit their stride. It also means that child prodigies and late bloomers develop differently and grow up to be fundamentally different people. 

To be sure, talented children usually find success in adulthood. In fact, a 2023 study found that child prodigies tend to earn more and have more career success than the average person.

Güllich and his team also note that their study is limited by its methodology. The research analyzed data from two types of studies: prospective studies, which scrutinize high-performing children over time, and retrospective studies, which looked back at the childhood development of high-achieving adults. Researchers pointed out that it is impossible to assign children to random careers, and that further research is required to understand how early development relates to success later in life.

Still, the study’s findings challenge the emphasis on early signs of high performance that elite schools, conservatories and youth sport academies often look for when recruiting talent.

In fact, earlier research indicates that such training could be detrimental, inspiring burnout. A 2018 NIH study found that “gifted” children had poor perceptions of their physical health, and that gifted kids were more at risk of poor mental health compared to non-gifted kids.

“All the findings obtained in this study suggest that gifted children are at risk in respect of mental health,” it warned.

Following the United States’ capture of Nicolás Maduro over the weekend, a report came out claiming that Venezuela had $60 billion stored in Bitcoin—leading to speculation that the U.S. could lay claim to cryptocurrency as well as oil. Despite numerous reports of the huge Venezuelan Bitcoin stash, however, a crypto forensic firm is skeptical of the claims. 

In a report published Thursday, researchers estimated demand for the metal will jump 50% from current levels to 42 million metric tons by 2040, while supply will shrink in the coming years.

The result will be a shortfall of 10 million tons that represents a “systemic risk for global industries, technological advancement and economic growth,” the report said.

Meanwhile, copper prices have surged to more than $13,000 per metric ton from just over $8,000 in April 2025, as President Donald Trump’s global tariffs and mining disruptions weighed on supplies. Prices for precious metals like gold, silver, palladium, and platinum, which also have industrial uses, have shot up in recently months as well.

The report highlights four key drivers of copper demand: core economic sectors, the transition to electrification, data centers powering the AI boom, and high-tech weapons.

A fifth potential driver is humanoid robots, S&P Global said, citing projections of 1 billion to 10 billion of them in operation by 2040.

“The future is not just copper-intensive, it is copper-enabled. Every new building, every line of digital code, every renewable megawatt, every new car, every advanced weapon system depends on the metal,” Aurian De La Noue, executive director for critical minerals and energy transition consulting at S&P Global Energy, said in a statement.

“Multilateral cooperation and regional diversification will be crucial to ensure a more resilient global copper system—one commensurate with copper’s role as the linchpin of electrification, digitalization, and security in the age of AI.”

Increased mining is necessary to alleviate the supply pressure, but it takes 17 years, on average, for a new mine to yield fresh copper after it’s first discovered. That’s as several headwinds weigh on production, including geology, engineering, logistics, regulatory, and environmental issues.

The concentration of copper mining and processing represent risks too, according to S&P Global. For example, just six countries account for roughly two-thirds of mining production, and China alone commands about 40% of global smelting capacity.

Beijing already leverages its dominance in rare earth minerals—which are also critical in a range of technologies—as a geopolitical tool in disputes with rivals like the U.S. and Japan.

The report warned copper’s reliance on a handful of countries makes global supplies and prices vulnerable to disruptions, policy shocks, and trade barriers.

“Several countries have deemed copper a ‘critical metal’ over the past half decade, including, in 2025, the United States. And with good reason,” said study co-chair Carlos Pascual, senior vice president at S&P Global Energy for geopolitics and international affairs. 

“Copper is the connective artery linking physical machinery, digital intelligence, mobility, infrastructure, communication, and security systems,” Pascual said. “The future availability of copper has become a matter of strategic importance.”