The past half-century has seen a dramatic increase in the scale and complexity of scientific research, to which researchers have responded by dedicating more time to education and training, narrowing their areas of specialization, and collaborating in larger teams. A widely held view is that such collaborations, by fostering specialization and encouraging novel combinations of ideas, accelerate scientific innovation. However, recent research challenges this notion, suggesting that small teams and solo researchers consistently disrupt science and technology with fresh ideas and opportunities, while larger teams tend to refine existing ones (Wu et al. 2019). This study, along with other relevant research, has garnered attention for challenging the zeitgeist of our time that views collaboration as the inevitable path forward in scientific and technological advancement. Yet, few studies have re-evaluated its central finding: the innovative advantage of small teams over large ones, using alternative measures. We explore innovation by identifying papers proposing new scientific concepts and patents introducing new technology codes. We analyzed 88 million research articles spanning from 1800 to 2020 and 7 million patent applications from 1976 to 2020 worldwide. Our findings confirm that while large teams contribute to development, small teams play a critical role in innovation by propelling fresh, original ideas in science and technology.

翻译：过去半个世纪，科学研究的规模和复杂性显著增加，研究人员通过投入更多时间接受教育和培训、缩小专业领域以及组建更大团队来应对这一趋势。一种普遍观点认为，此类合作通过促进专业化和鼓励思想的创新组合，加速了科学创新。然而，近期研究对此提出了质疑，表明小型团队和独立研究者持续以新思想和新机遇颠覆科学和技术，而大型团队更倾向于完善现有成果（Wu et al. 2019）。这项研究及相关成果因挑战了当代将合作视为科学技术进步必然路径的主流观念而备受关注。然而，鲜有研究采用替代性指标重新评估其核心发现：小型团队相对于大型团队的创新优势。我们通过识别提出新科学概念的论文和引入新技术代码的专利来探索创新。我们分析了全球1800年至2020年间的8800万篇研究论文以及1976年至2020年间的700万项专利申请。我们的研究结果证实，尽管大型团队对发展有所贡献，但小型团队通过推动科学技术领域新颖原创的思想，在创新中发挥着关键作用。