科学的新发现并不总是前后连贯、循序渐进的。相反,在科学发展过程中有一系列的间断。早熟的科学发现是科学家在当时的情况下并没有意识到而在回顾时被描述为“超越时代”的发现。巴伯(Barber)和斯坦特(Stent)对此作了研究。在本文中我们将指出还存在着有晚成的科学发现,即在回顾时被判定为“被耽搁了”的发现。我们将分析有关细菌性别的发现是否为晚成的争议,并提出一些与这一判定相关的问题,探讨在当时投身此项研究的人们中,为什么利德伯格(Lederberg)和塔特姆(Tatum)成为作出此项发现的 The new discoveries of science are not always consistent and gradual. On the contrary, there is a series of discontinuities in the process of scientific development. Premature scientific discoveries were the findings scientists described as “beyond the age” when they did not realize it in the circumstances. Barber and Stent studied this. In this article we will point out the existence of late-arriving scientific discoveries that were found to be “delayed” at the time of review. We will analyze the controversy over whether bacterial gender is late and propose some of the issues that are relevant to this decision and to explore why among those who were involved in the study at the time, why Lederberg and Tatum ( Tatum) to make this discovery