I wonder if there's some selection bias inherent in the studies presented here. Assuming that it has been established that older scientists are more willing to accept new controversial hypotheses than younger scientists, has it also been established that they differentially accept good new controversial hypotheses? What I see here is that they tended to embrace the big paradigm shifts relatively early, but it doesn't say anything about older scientists' tendencies to embrace controversial hypotheses that ended up later being discredited. Specifically, Linus Pauling's obsession with Vitamin C megadosing later in life springs to mind.