American Science is in Dangerous Decline while Chinese Research Surges, Experts Warn
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-science-is-in-dangerous-decline-while-chinese-research-surges/
American Science is in Dangerous Decline while Chinese Research Surges, Experts Warn
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/american-science-is-in-dangerous-decline-while-chinese-research-surges/
12 Comments
In a first-ever “State of the Science” address at the end of June, National Academy of Sciences president Marcia McNutt warned that the U.S. was ceding its global scientific leadership to other countries—highlighting China in particular. McNutt, a widely respected geophysicist, said this slippage could make it harder for the U.S. to maintain the strength of its economy and protect its national security. She also laid out a provisional plan of action to reverse the decline.
In her address, McNutt presented a flurry of figures that indicated a slump in American science. The U.S. has a declining share of the most cited science papers, for instance, and the rate at which new drugs and technologies hit the market has flatlined over the past several decades. The U.S. still spends the most money out of any other country on research and development, but China is set to soon outpace those investments. China currently files more patents than the U.S. and hosts more than a quarter of the world’s clinical trials, as compared to only 3 percent in 2013.
Girls don’t bang scientists. Scientists don’t usually command a lot of respect or make a ton of money. I wish I had been academically inclined enough to be a scientists.
Americans no longer seem to believe science. Most live in alt realities that only affirm what they believe and disregard and science that contradicts that.
So what? also “Dangerous decline?” Like why should I care, science is science as long as the work gets done and is shared with everyone else then all is good. Some might say China is untrustworthy or whatever, but America science is either to make someone money, blow something up, so let’s not go splitting hairs.
Republicans don’t value science, expertise, or even education.
I mean Chinese social media promotes science and art. Meanwhile Amsricans make people like the Hwak Tuah girl famous.
As a scientist, I suggest that quantity =/= quality, but also suggest paying scientists at least slightly more than minimum wage for better results.
Our supremacy was driven by the cold war and state-funded colleges and now the last of that cohort have aged out.
We’ve done well for awhile importing all our PhD’s and Masters via H1B Visas. Cheaper to import them than pay for our kids’ tuitions, I suppose.
Anyway, the folks at r/singularity will tell you that humans won’t be needed for science anymore in a decade or two.
Well I mean look at the cost of education in the US.. what were we expecting? Idk how American universities can even maintain their level of quality with how poor public education is in the US, possibly it’s just wealthy Americans only even attending university and the handful of actually gifted kids. The debt from university often is too much of a burden to bear for people.
Better salary and work-life balance working in a company.
The article mentions how since the 1980s corporations have been a major source of funding for US research and I think this is the biggest problem that the USA has. There’s been a big push for STEM education in the US over the past several years, but the only programs getting investment tend to be focused on job training for kids looking to go into popular fields like computer science or engineering. Pretty much every argument for funding education comes down to job training, and anything that’s not perceived as useful for that pursuit is sidelined.
Turning school into job training isn’t the end of it though; The US being so dominated by corporate interests means that there are no long term goals or vision for scientific advancement which is one of the biggest reasons why China is surpassing the US and dominating all aspects of new green tech.
I personally don’t really care whether the USA or China is top dog on research, the cold war rhetoric falls flat since both countries are extremely flawed, and with the current threat of climate change whoever takes action to mitigate it’s effects and lower greenhouse gas emissions has my support.
Well, as soon as the US open hundreds of gender studies and diversity factories and research centers, who’s going to have the last laugh now… China, but that’s not really important right now. At least if war ever breaks out between China and the US, the US will have a 2:1 advantage of social media influencers doing military dance TikTok challenges than China. And that’s a win.