Freedom to Tinker: Is the U.S. Losing its Technical Edge?:
The U.S. is losing its dominance in science and technology, according to William J. Broad’s article in the New York Times earlier this week. The article looked at the percentage of awards (such as Nobel Prizes in science), published papers, and issued U.S. patents that go to Americans, and found that the U.S. share had declined significantly.
The charts that accompany this are carefully designed to buttress the point that US-based scientists are losing their lead against Asian and European counterparts. But it would have been more helpful to see the numbers in context: how many more patents are being filed, how many more papers being submitted, how many more PhDs are being earned, worldwide. The article suggests that all these numbers are rising, but it obscures that by sticking to the argument that somehow US scientists are losing out.
The other theme of the article is that our overseas counterparts can spend more on science, as a fraction of the GDP, since they don’t have the expenses of the world’s largest military to support. Countries like South Korea and Japan, as well the NATO and EU states, don’t bear anything approaching the costs of our defense budget. And that may not change for the better anytime soon.
In a report last month, the American Association for the Advancement of Science said the Bush administration, to live up to its pledge to halve the nation’s budget deficit in the next five years, would cut research financing at 21 of 24 federal agencies — all those that do or finance science except those involved in space and national and domestic security.