China, ascendent

China, ascendent

Author: PNAS December 29, 2025 Duration: 10:21

China's science leadership

Science Sessions are brief conversations with cutting-edge researchers, National Academy members, and policymakers as they discuss topics relevant to today's scientific community. Learn the behind-the-scenes story of work published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), plus a broad range of scientific news about discoveries that affect the world around us.

In this episode, James Evans explains how and why China's leadership in global science is rising.

In this episode, we cover:
•[00:00] Introduction
•[00:56] Social and complex systems scientist James Evans recounts the recent history of the trajectories of science in the U.S. and in China.
•[01:50] He explains how to measure a country's scientific leadership and introduces the data sources used in the study.
•[04:18] Evans tells the results of the study, and talks about some areas of science in which China's leadership has particularly advanced.
•[06:20] He lists the key takeaways from the study for policymakers and the benefits of global science engagement.
•[08:47] Evans talks about the caveats and limitations of the work.
•[09:54] Conclusion

About Our Guest:

James Evans
Max Plofsky Professor of Sociology and Data Science 
University of Chicago

View related content here: https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2414893122

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Tune into PNAS Science Sessions for a direct line to the people shaping modern science. Produced by PNAS, this podcast offers more than just summaries of published research; it’s where you hear the candid, often personal stories behind the headlines. Each episode features concise conversations with the researchers themselves-from emerging voices to established Academy members-alongside the policymakers whose decisions are informed by this work. You’ll get a genuine sense of the questions that drive these experts, the unexpected hurdles they face in their labs and field studies, and why their findings matter right now. The scope is deliberately wide, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of science itself, covering discoveries that range from microscopic processes to planetary-scale phenomena. This isn't about dry lectures, but about capturing the human endeavor of investigation. For anyone curious about how science actually unfolds and wants to understand the context of breakthroughs as they happen, this podcast serves as an essential, engaging resource. It connects the dots between a published paper in a prestigious journal and the real-world implications that ripple out from it.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

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