Is the US Losing its Edge in Science?
16/03/12 14:15 Filed in: GenomeWeb Daily Scan
Submitted by S. Pelech - Kinexus on Fri, 03/16/2012 - 14:15.
A lot of the present rhetoric going around about the decline of American dominance in science and technology reminds me about the hype in the late 50's and 60's about the West lagging behind the East (at that time the East meant the Soviet Union) with the space and nuclear arms race. The calls to action resulted a marked escalation of funding to advance scientific research in the West, but unfortunately diverted a lot of precious resources into rather destructive ends such as the mass production of nuclear weapons. This time around, the threat is the Far East. However, much of the new competition is really about advancing the health of humans and the environment. With more resources being channelled to support these pursuits by China, Japan, Korea, India and other Asian countries, we will all benefit world-wide. If such friendly competition from the Far East spurs the general public and politicians in the West to further step up their commitments for advancement of biomedical and life science research at the expense of the military, this is a good thing.
Link to the original blog post.
A lot of the present rhetoric going around about the decline of American dominance in science and technology reminds me about the hype in the late 50's and 60's about the West lagging behind the East (at that time the East meant the Soviet Union) with the space and nuclear arms race. The calls to action resulted a marked escalation of funding to advance scientific research in the West, but unfortunately diverted a lot of precious resources into rather destructive ends such as the mass production of nuclear weapons. This time around, the threat is the Far East. However, much of the new competition is really about advancing the health of humans and the environment. With more resources being channelled to support these pursuits by China, Japan, Korea, India and other Asian countries, we will all benefit world-wide. If such friendly competition from the Far East spurs the general public and politicians in the West to further step up their commitments for advancement of biomedical and life science research at the expense of the military, this is a good thing.
Link to the original blog post.