


Are China’s universities really the best in the world?
Nature’s prestigious index says yes
A decade ago Nature, a scientific publisher, began tallying the contributions made by researchers at different institutions to papers published across a set of 145 respected journals. When the first such Nature Index was published in 2016, the Chinese Academy of Science (CAS) ranked first, but American and European institutions dominated the top ten. Harvard placed second, with Stanford and MIT fifth and sixth; the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the German Max Planck Society were third and fourth; Oxford and Cambridge took ninth and tenth (seventh and eighth place went, respectively, to the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres and the University of Tokyo).
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How to find the smartest AI
Developers are building fiendish tests only the best models can pass

Meet the moths that use the stars to find their way
The skill was previously thought unique to humans and certain birds

The world needs to understand the deep oceans better
Otherwise it cannot protect them properly
Is the “manopause” real?
If it is, it is nothing like the menopause
A routine test for fetal abnormalities could improve a mother’s health
Studies show these can help detect pre-eclampsia and predict preterm births
How to stop swarms of drones? Blast them with microwaves
America’s armed forces are already deploying the technology