• Email Bluesky Facebook LinkedIn Reddit Whatsapp X Jumping to a new research topic is intimidating but can enable diverse teams and creative breakthroughs • Credit: Getty In science, careers are often imagined as linear: a direct path from school to degree, PhD to postdoc, and onwards to the inevitable professorship or industry role • In reality, research rarely moves in straight lines - and neither do successful researchers • The dynamism of science is driven by researchers’ willingness to pursue fresh avenues • One study, published in 2025, analysed the career trajectories of 1 • 4 million scientists1

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  • 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. In science, careers are often imagined as linear: a direct path from school to degree, PhD to postdoc, and onwards to the inevitable professorship or industry role. In reality, research rarely moves in straight lines - and neither do successful researchers. The dyna

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