In a previous post (linked above), I challenged the metrics of a massive study—spanning 45 million articles and 3.9 million patents—that concluded science is becoming markedly less disruptive. A newer analysis paints a far more optimistic picture: truly groundbreaking studies that persistently disrupt scientific paradigms are on the rise. By introducing a “persistent disruption” metric—one that rewards enduring influence instead of transient citation spikes—its authors show these rare, transformative papers have climbed 500% since 2000. High persistent disruption scores also correlated with other hallmarks of originality, including recognition by Nobel Prizes, the authors found. https://www.science.org/content/article/research-may-be-increasingly-incremental-studies-making-lasting-paradigm-shifts-are
Still on the topic of science, it's worth highlighting a recent article published in the latest edition of The Economist about how Chinese universities are attracting Western researchers. Moreover, just last year, a Chinese University attracted a Nobel Prize–winning French physicist—and now, Ardem Patapoutian, the 2021 Nobel laureate in Medicine and current researcher at the Scripps Research Institute in California, visited my country at the invitation of the Champalimaud Foundation and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In an interview published yesterday in the Portuguese newspaper Publico, he revealed that China has offered him a 20-year research endowment. https://www.publico.pt/2025/05/24/ciencia/entrevista/ardem-patapoutian-eua-ha-movimento-inexplicavel-ciencia-2133956?ref=hp&cx=manchete_2_destaques_0
PS - A few days ago, the Bruegel think tank dropped a bombshell report exposing Europe’s pathetic failure in the global tech war. If, on top of this, Europe continues to lose its top scientists to China, it risks sliding into complete irrelevance.
