Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Science of science

When disruption endures

A new framework disentangles the nature of disruption in science, revealing how rare but persistent breakthroughs shake the foundations of research fields while remaining central to future work.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Two-dimensional framework for measuring persistent disruption.

References

  1. Park, M., Leahey, E. & Funk, R. J. Nature 613, 138–144 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Boot, A. & Vladimirov, V. J. Account. Res. 63, 5–56 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Bräuer, R. Searching Where Ideas are Harder to Find: The Productivity Slowdown as a Result of Firms Hindering Disruptive Innovation, Discussion Paper no. 22/2023 (Halle Institute for Economic Research (IWH), 2024).

  4. Lin, Y., Frey, C. B. & Wu, L. Nature 623, 987–991 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Wu, L., Wang, D. & Evans, J. A. Nature 566, 378–382 (2019).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Bessen, J. In The New Goliaths: How Corporations Use Software to Dominate Industries, Kill Innovation, and Undermine Regulation, 19–36 (Yale Univ. Press, 2022).

  7. Deng, N., Gu, X., Fan, Y., Havlin, S. & Zeng, A. Nat. Comput. Sci. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00808-7 (2025).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Lin, Z., Yin, Y., Liu, L. & Wang, D. Sci. Data 10, 315 (2023).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Chu, J. S. G. & Evans, J. A. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. 118, e2021636118 (2021).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Christensen, C. M. The Innovator’s Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Harvard Business Review Press, 1997)

  11. Schumpeter, J. A. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (Harper & Brothers, 1942).

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Russell J. Funk.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Funk, R.J., Wu, X. When disruption endures. Nat Comput Sci 5, 440–441 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00812-x

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-025-00812-x

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing