To preface, when the topics of doctoral degrees come up, there tends to be a lot of discussion on whether they’re worth it or now, the reasons for doing one (or not), or just general debates about academics or academia and whether they’re worth their salt. I’m not interested in rehashing that, so for the purpose of the question that the hypothetical subject does want to do a OhD and for the “right” reasons.Would someone in a STEM field and of average intelligence be capable of completing a quality PhD? If the goal is to produce original research, is such a person likely to be capable of priding truly original work? Especially for fields that are more mature and much of the low hanging fruit plucked? Or would it be more likely that they struggle to understand the context and knowledge required to work on the bleeding edge of their respective field, ultimately leading to them dropping out, or producing barely novel work.