Credit: MirageC/Getty When I first arrived in the United States as an international student from India, I was immediately struck by the steep learning curve involved in communicating effectively in English. I’m a former research fellow at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi in New Delhi, and a Bengali speaker, as well as being fluent…

Due in part to strong institutional collaborations and industry presence, the United States has maintained its lead in health sciences, with the Boston metropolitan area (MA) taking the top spot with a Share of 676.43. However, the Massachusetts capital — which is home to numerous biotech companies, leading universities, and more than 20 hospitals —…

A strengthening research climate has seen Chinese cities rise to take the top three spots in this year’s leading science cities for physical sciences, as the eastern city of Nanjing climbs above both Boston and New York for the first time. Nanjing, China’s 13th largest city by population size according to the country’s 2020 census,…

An analytical chemist works in the lab of biotech company Arcaea, which is based in Boston, Massachusetts.Credit: Boston Globe/Getty When a delegation of scientists from Japan recently visited Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, they asked their hosts a familiar question: what are the secret factors that make the Boston area, which includes Cambridge, such a…

With its continued focus on sustainability and ecological protection, China is cementing itself as a leader in Earth and environmental sciences. Beijing, Nanjing and Guangzhou, the leading three cities in the subject, respectively, have all recorded increases in adjusted Share between 2022 and 2023. Wuhan’s momentum is particularly strong — the city’s adjusted Share in…

Single-cell technologies have shattered the fuzzy lenses through which researchers conventionally view biology. Instead of looking at the average behaviour of a swathe of cells, scientists can interrogate genes or other features cell by cell. But the technology also brings challenges: the data are expensive to collect and analyse, and typically force researchers to choose…

In April, the US Environmental Protection Agency declared a standard of ‘close to zero’ levels of certain PFAS substances in drinking water.Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty A simple chemical bond between carbon and fluorine atoms changed the world — for the better, and then for the worse. Such bonds lie at the heart of per- and polyfluoroalkyl…

China’s cities are playing a key role in the development of specialist technologies such as solar energy.Credit: Yaorusheng/Getty Many of the patterns evident in the data for this year’s Nature Index Science Cities supplement will be familiar to watchers of global science trends over the past decade. China’s research output in the journals tracked by…

In the biological sciences, the United States has the leading Nature Index science cities. But although New York and Boston continue to dominate the top spots, 2023 has brought a significant shift in other parts of the rankings. Beijing’s impressive growth in the subject, shown by an 18.8% year-on-year increase in adjusted Share, alongside a…

In a discovery that blurs the line between biology and technology, scientists have found that heart-shaped clams use fiber optic–like structures to channel sunlight through their shells in much the same way that telecommunications company use fiber optics to deliver high-speed internet connectivity into homes. This innovation, a first known example of bundled fiber optics…