Did the US Take the Back Seat In Science In 2009? 502
tcd004 writes "In the PBS NewsHour's roundup of the biggest science news of the year, Neil DeGrasse Tyson dropped this doozie: '[Scientific leadership] drives the economic strength and security of nations. The fall is not from a cliff. More like a slow, downward slide — almost imperceptible from day to day. But as the years pass America will have descended from leaders to players to merely followers as we fade to insignificance, at best hitching a ride on the innovations of others.'"
Re:What's this 'we' thing ? (Score:5, Informative)
Slashdot is U.S.-centric. We readily admit this, and really don't see it as a problem. Slashdot is run by Americans, after all, and the vast majority of our readership is in the U.S. We're certainly not opposed to doing more international stories, but we don't have any formal plans for making that happen. All we can really tell you is that if you're outside the U.S. and you have news, submit it, and if it looks interesting, we'll post it.
It is worth noting that there is a Japanese Slashdot run by VA Japan. While we helped them a little in their early days, they essentially run their own content without any real involvement from us... none of us can read Kanji! There are currently no plans to do other language or nation specific Slashdot sites.
Re:What's this 'we' thing ? (Score:5, Informative)
are you americans arent able to realize that internet has become a global place still to the extent that you think staggering majority of people here are americans ?
get over yourselves. you are living in a global world and its name is internet.
In this great international global place of no shift keys, do you also not recognize the authority of the direct quote? The we in question is Dr. Tyson (an American) and his fellow countrymen (also Americans).
us vs. them (Score:2, Informative)
BTW. Alexa claims only about 47.1% of us here at /. are from US. I'm unsure how representative Alexa is for global stats (global rankings rarely are), but the rest of the world'd be sooner underrepresented than not.
Re:What's this 'we' thing ? (Score:2, Informative)
I agree (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Time to reverse scientific migration... (Score:4, Informative)
The brain drain to the US was always a double edged sword. Many people went to the US with the lure of higher wages and lower taxes, realized it wasn't really true, and left.
Taking Canada as an example, Albertans pay lower taxes than residents of many US states. Any remaining disparities in wages and taxes are easily swallowed up by all the extra fees, the biggest being health insurance, that you run into in the US.
A few years ago I was part of a group interviewing a prominent researcher from Cornell for a position at a Canadian university (he was originally Canadian, educated in Canada). His reasons for coming back were (1) excellent research opportunities in Canada, (2) inability to pay for a decent post secondary education for his children and (3) inability to pay for decent health care in the US as he and his wife got older.
Statistically, IIRC, the brain drain between Canada and the US reversed about a decade ago in most areas.
Re:I have seen the lecture you are referring too. (Score:1, Informative)
Hard science papers dropped to 1/10th? Nonsense.
The number of papers published increased significantly during the Bush administration. What has dropped is the percentage of papers published in the US versus the rest of the world. That trend started back in the eighties as countries like China, India, and the former Soviet Union published more, not that the US published less [physorg.com].
Re:I expect so... (Score:3, Informative)
Oh, it's not hard to get into the US illegally. But then you can't really work in a field where you might eventually be exposed to public scrunity. Like, say, research where you might one day want to participate in the Nobel Prize raffle.
Let's be honest here: Scientists not only want to research, they also want to show off like everyone. And their showing off is, by the very definition of their trade, very, very public. They also consider working in sweatshop labour places and being paid under the table beneath them. They want serious, honest work because their reputation is important to them.
So they need to immigrate honestly. And that's not too easy with the US.
Re:What's this 'we' thing ? (Score:3, Informative)
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Economics: Comparative Advantage (Score:4, Informative)
That is a very false conclusion.
The Japanese are a few years behind... but they are suffering the same fate as the Americans.
Young Japanese (on mass) do not find science and engineering all that interesting anymore and they aren't willing to sacrifice to just do it as a job.
There's also the salary curve. As your society gets more services and regulations, there are 'easier' ways to make money, you can be a financial person, a doctor, lawyer, public sector worker, transit worker ... Your best and brightest go into those areas.
Contrast this with say H1Bs. Now you get the best of the best from other countries where the pay/work vastly exceeds anything they could earn in other industries.
That said, the need for H1Bs is simply not that useful these days. If a company wants to make use of foreign labor, they could just setup a foreign branch :P
Re:I expect so... (Score:3, Informative)
I'm from Europe. And yes, people are quite religious here. Some even participate in mass every Sunday. Hey, we even have mandatory religion classes in school!
Yet, funny enough, the idea of creationism never really occured to anyone. Well, ok, there might be a handful of people, but the second a politician would seriously try to push it he may as well kiss his career good bye. We consider science and religion distinct matters. It seems our religious are quite capable to believe in their God and at the same time accept that evolution is being taught to their kids. In general, I'm fairly convinced that if you hold a survey of people coming out of church asking them whether creationism is something they believe in, you get quite funny looks and a lot of shaking, disbelieving heads.
Church and religion are something private here. The public part is mostly show, see and be seen, but whether you believe or not is something for yourself only. And, to be honest, that's how I (and a lot of other people here) think it should be.
Re:UAVs on US soil? (Score:3, Informative)
surely you realize that, while all UCAVs are UAVs, not all UAVs are UCAVs.
Re:not news (Score:4, Informative)
We don't do commercial R&D because we can't afford it. All our money is going to Federal programs.
Hey, stupid, corporate taxes have gone down since the 1980's. But yet, the number of research labs run by corporations has gone down precipitously in that time. Why? I'll give you a hint - it has nothing to do with the amount of government expenditures. It has a lot to do with the fact that corporations don't see immediate profit in research and have closed down their labs. And, in fact, the government has actually subsidized corporate R&D since that time by giving R&D tax credits. So are you just ignoring facts, or what?