When I searched 'perspicacious' in google or bing, pictures of Albert Einstein and Sherlock Holmes turned up. So, it seems that we can use 'perspicacious' to describe them as in the following dialogs, right?
Tom: Einstein discovered the theory of relativity.
Friend: He's such a perspicacious scientist.
Jack: Did you ever read A Study in Scarlet?
Friend: Yeah, Holmes' so perspicacious.
Can I replace the 'perspicacious' above by 'astute'?
According to Merriam-Webster, astute means
having or showing shrewdness and an ability to notice and understand things clearly: mentally sharp or clever.
One of the example uses of astute there is
an astute observer.
So, it seems reasonable to describe Einstein and Holmes as astute. After all, they are both good observers, one of science and the other crime scene. What bothers me is, in Cambridge Dictionary, astute means
able to understand a situation quickly and see how to take advantage of it.
An observer of the stock market or politics may benefit from his/her astute observation and take advantage of a situation, but how can a scientist or detective 'take advantage of it'?
Is it natural to use 'astute' to describe a scientist or detective?