Why the rate of scientific advancements has been so much greater in 20th century than in earlier centuries?

Question

Most people have discussed the importance of scientific advancements in the 20th century like cloning, in space etc but the question that always comes in to my mind is why was the rate so fast in the past century and why not in earlier centuries even though there were genius people like Einstein around. I don’t intend to deny the advancements that took place but no one ever discusses the reason for them I have looked around a lot of places but never got a satisfactory answer! The question still bothers me.

Answer 1

Science is a part of culture, and culture is a function of energy consumption. The more energy is available to pursue anything, the faster progress will be made. The trend of increasing rates won't continue, though. When humans run out of fossil fuels and nothing else can take up the slack, you'll see a sharp decline in the rate of new scientific discoveries, along with a sharp decline in every other thing (such as agricultural produce).

Answer 2

1) More money and people are devoted to scientific research especially since WWII
2) We are standing on the shoulders of giants. Much of the advances we see in our lives are based on the theories that were developed in prior centuries. See this web site for century that various advances were made. I think you will be surprised.
http://www.radix.net/~bobg/timeline/theories.html

Answer 3

Science & technology build on themselves and are therefore an exponential function of time. The rate will continue to increase until the asteroid arrives.

Answer 4

Computers let us do our arithmetic faster!