"It is expected that China will overtake the US in terms of the quantity of research output in physics in the next couple of years.
@sorghum, thanks for the above. I was struck by the China comment (but not shocked.) US drive for dominance in science in the 2nd half of the 20th century was fueled by the cold war. Now, we as a society are beginning to simply not care much about any research that doesn’t ring big in someone’s – whether the gov’t or private sector – cash register.