The Trump administration has taken a bulldozer to science funding over the last year and change, wiping out more than 7,800 research grants, cutting 25,000 scientists from government agencies, and proposing tens of billions of dollars in further scientific funding cuts — scientific bloodshed that’s disproportionally targeting research into misinformation, vaccines, infectious diseases, and other crucial topics.
It could easily backfire. The administration’s war on science could greatly undermine the country’s decades-long stance as the global leader in research and development …. That could allow China, which has dramatically increased public spending on R&D while the US has been pulling back, to surge ahead as the US continues to suffer a stomach-churning brain drain.
Whether China will stand the chance of overtaking the US as the dominating scientific superpower will likely remain difficult to gauge directly. …
Nonetheless, the early signs are there. China’s contribution to the Nature Index, which tracks the top papers appearing in natural-science and health-science journals, is expected to be double that of the US by the end of 2026, according to Nature.
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