  Teams dominate the production of high-impact science and technology.
Analyzing teamwork from more than 50 million papers, patents, and software
products, 1954-2014, we demonstrate across this period that larger teams
developed recent, popular ideas, while small teams disrupted the system by
drawing on older and less prevalent ideas. Attention to work from large teams
came immediately, while advances by small teams succeeded further into the
future. Differences between small and large teams magnify with impact - small
teams have become known for disruptive work and large teams for developing
work. Differences in topic and re- search design account for part of the
relationship between team size and disruption, but most of the effect occurs
within people, controlling for detailed subject and article type. Our findings
suggest the importance of supporting both small and large teams for the
sustainable vitality of science and technology.
