Two humanoid robots engage in combat at a high-tech fair in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province. (Photo: China News Service/ Chen Wen)

(ECNS) - China has topped the global "research frontiers heat index" in six of 11 major scientific fields, while the U.S. leads in five, latest reports jointly released on Wednesday by the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the global analytics firm Clarivate show.

The reports - 2025 Research Frontiers and 2025 Research Frontiers Heat Index - compare the performance of major research countries, including China, the U.S., the U.K., Germany and Canada, across 11 broad scientific domains. Overall, the U.S. remains the leader, while China holds second place globally but continues to narrow the gap.

Six of China's top-ranked fields include agricultural sciences, botany and zoology; ecology and environmental sciences; chemistry and materials science; physics; information science; and economics, psychology and other social sciences, said Yang Fan, deputy director of the CAS Institute of Strategic Intelligence.

These results "reflect strong foundations and active frontier exploration in these disciplines," Yan added.

China ranked second in Earth sciences, biological sciences and mathematics, and continues to advance steadily in clinical medicine and astronomy, both now among the world's top five, according to Yang.

(By Zhang Jiahao)