Even if Mr Reshef fails, there are plenty of other disruptive innovators around.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

Shai Reshef, an educational entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist, is pioneering an even more radical idea.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

Mr Reshef's university has yet to win accreditation, which could take years.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

But Philippon and Reshef determined that up to half of the pay premium was due to something much simpler: people in the financial sector are overpaid.

NEWYORKER: What Good Is Wall Street?

There are plenty of questions about Mr Reshef's project.

ECONOMIST: Schumpeter

One of those leading the reaction against carbon nanotubes (so-called, because their dimensions are measured in nanometres, or billionths of a metre) is Reshef Tenne, head of materials science at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

ECONOMIST: Was the carbon nanotube overhyped?

After studying the large pay differential between financial-sector employees and people in other industries with similar levels of education and experience, he and a colleague, Ariell Reshef of the University of Virginia, concluded that some of it could be explained by growing demand for financial services from technology companies and baby boomers.

NEWYORKER: What Good Is Wall Street?