Can Trying Something New Keep You Innovative After 50?

A New Look at Innovation and Age

A new study analyzing 49 million publications from 3 million scientists found that researchers who worked across multiple fields were more likely to sustain innovative contributions throughout their careers than those who remained concentrated within narrower areas of expertise. The analysis covered scientific careers from 1900 through 2020.

The research, titled The Longevity of Innovation, was posted to arXiv in June 2026. It is a preprint and has not yet been peer reviewed, meaning its findings should be considered preliminary.

Researchers Yiling Lin, Zak Risha, Erin Leahey and Lingfei Wu developed a framework to distinguish scientists who frequently crossed disciplinary boundaries, described as generalists, from those whose work remained more specialized.

Generalists Showed a Different Pattern

The researchers found that innovation generally declined with career age, but the pattern differed between generalists and specialists. Scientists who continued working across fields showed a smaller decline in innovation over their careers than researchers who remained within narrower disciplines.

Generalists were also less anchored to scientific literature associated with their original training. Teams containing a greater share of generalists produced more innovative research even after the researchers accounted for differences in the diversity of knowledge represented within those teams.

The analysis also identified a trade-off. Generalists published fewer papers on average than specialists and have become less common over time as scientific research has grown increasingly specialized.

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What the Study Does and Does Not Show

The research focused specifically on scientists and scientific publications. It did not examine career changes among the broader workforce and does not establish that changing careers, entering a new industry or pursuing additional education increases innovation.

The researchers propose that moving across disciplines may expose scientists to different ideas, methods and problems throughout their careers, potentially contributing to the observed differences between generalists and specialists.

Because the study is observational, the findings demonstrate an association between cross-disciplinary work and sustained innovation. They do not establish that working across disciplines directly causes scientists to remain innovative longer.

The research has also not yet undergone peer review. Additional evaluation and research will be needed to determine whether the findings are replicated and how broadly they apply beyond the scientific careers included in the analysis.