U.S. Dominance in Science at Risk, Report Says

Source: New York Times

By CORNELIA DEAN
Published: January 16, 2008

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said on Tuesday in its biennial report on science and engineering.

The country’s position is especially delicate, the agency said, given its reliance on foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs.

The board is the oversight agency for the National Science Foundation, the nation’s leading source of funds for basic research in the physical sciences.

The report, available at www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators, recommends increased financing for basic research and greater “intellectual interchange” between researchers in academia and industry. The board also called for better efforts to track the globalization of manufacturing and services in the high-tech sector, and their implications for the American economy....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/science/15cnd-nsf.html?_r=1&hp&oref=login

why should we be surprised?

...although the Bush administration has certainly made matters worse. I've been dismayed for years by the poor state of science and math preparation many schools provide, at least as they're reflected by the students arriving for university biology classes. In fact, I've seen some improvement-- or at least efforts toward improvement-- during the last few years, at least in my institution (and throughout my state, I'm told) because of increased efforts to train K-12 teachers in math and sciences. I don't know whether this will really pay off eventually or not, but I do see some very bright and dedicated folks trying. Here's a link: http://www.humboldt.edu/~rsp/ Note that while some folks in my department are leading this effort, I'm not involved at all.

Anyway, I think the problem is much more systemic than anything the Bush administration has had time to damage-- the worst effects of Bush on education are still in the pipeline. The National Science Foundation was lamenting this problem back in the 1990s. It is not a new phenomenon.

The Moron majority that put Regan in power, and continued to push us rightward even during the Clinton years, is one of the primary forces behind this retrograde movement.

But there are others.

Politics aside, here is a paper on this subject by Carl Offner, one of my professors at UMass Boston

"Dumbing Down Mathematics and Science: Sizer’s Essential Schools Proposal"

http://www.cs.umb.edu/~offner/files/dumb.pdf

:evilgrin: It looks very interesting!

I must admit that I am actually teaching a course entitled "Physics for Poets." I've always despised that name and criticized it in exactly the same way Offner does. A name change is in the works...

There's a tremendous amount of pressure on today's college students to find the most efficient way to make money. Top students major in business, and the physics and chem majors get a barrage of snide questions along the lines of "What are you going to do with that?" Compounding the problem is the fact that most science departments aren't very good at preparing their majors for options other than graduate school.

Mmmhmm. We sure need Fuckabee right now.

more dangerous than *

Bush or shit. :)

Fuckabee IS scary! If he managed to get in the White House this country would revisit the Dark Ages.

If Fuckabee got elected....I think it would split the country in to two pieces....

Teaching creationism as an alternate science... just wait until the fundies demand having alchemy taught in conjunction with chemistry, and astrology alongside astronomy - hey, kids got to be prepared for life in the 12th century!!!

This should be on the front page.
:kick:

We lead the world in Christian colleges and seminaries.

Also law schools.

Let us pray that we win a huge settlement.

As India and China--and other countries--gain economically, they'll have more to invest.

In a world that had no economic and cultural disparities, we'd have about equal expenditures on a per capita basis in each country. There'd be fewer reasons for non-American tech folk to move here, and they'd further beef up their own economy. Then the only reason for one country to be 'better' at research at the level of 'country' (as opposed to 'individual') would be differences in numbers of individuals and limitations on projects imposed by amount of revenue available--obviously Andorra wouldn't produce as many scientific papers as the US, and given limitations on income wouldn't be able to invest in expensive and large-scale research. (Hell, if China was as economically advanced as the US, would the current accelerator being built in Europe by a consortium of countries really need to be built by a consortium? Wouldn't China just be able to build it for her own scientists?)

Saying that the US should be tops in research is fine, but it entails having everybody else be either in smaller countries or poorer. The first is irrelevant to progressivism, the latter is contrary to it. But is firmly rah-rah, Go USA!

Furthermore, it entails having less research rather than more, and hence less progress than more. The more people doing research, the better, IMHO.

Now, I have no problem dissing cultural currents in the US and abroad (in which case "rah-rah USA" or "rah-rah West!" is akin to the likely outcome): anti-intellectualism is usually counterproductive. But that's not the issue in this article. Instead, the article's taken as a chance to be "rah-rah, go progressives!" and reinforce a nice in-group identity. But I don't do 'rah-rah', and I've never been hung up on my group identity. "Hey, that's cool!" I can muster; "hey, that's really clever and sophisticated research" is doable. But "rah-rah"? Nah.

There is a rising concern about language. We have been coasting on Ameringlish being common in commerce, science, technology, research, etc. That trend is no longer reliable. Even if our undereducated kids make it past school their competitors will have broader access to information (especially new information) while our kids wait for translations...

working to squelch true science in favor of corporate profits. For example, the silencing/distorting of climate research.

Put that together with the persecution of certain ethnic groups and "intellectuals" and there is not only a brain drain, but also outright monkey-wrenching and disloyalty as pissed-off scientists take their brilliance and their discoveries elsewhere.

I got an insight into this from a WWII novel I'm reading. A Jewish character, a brilliant scientist, is first imprisoned in a camp and then forced to work as a slave on high-tech projects. Out of revenge, finally, he manages to smuggle his secret for short-wave radar, which the Germans desperately need, to the British. Just like our own Nazis, the Germans were doomed because they alienated, persecuted, marginalized, and killed the very people who would raise them to brilliance and success. Who's to say what Muslim or "Arab" scientists, or "liberal," pissed-off scientists who have expatriated, have discovered or will discover that could boost U.S. science to greatness that will never be known in this country but will be "discovered" elsewhere "first"?

Most kids can tell you a whole lot more about the starting lineups of this weekends playoff games. Than could tell you about Eileen Collins or Pamela Melroy.