J. J. Thomson, the discoverer of the electron and a recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics, trained many physicists, among them seven Nobel Prize winners, 32 fellows of the Royal Society of London, and 83 professors of physics. This shows that the skills needed for creative research can be taught and learned.
J. J. Thomson was an internationally known physicist, and scientists came from all over the world to work with him is an assumption on which the argument depends.