U.S. Science Gap Fictional?

James Cho writes "There are more science and engineering students than ever, says one Newsweek journalist. Inflated counts of Chinese and Indian students have created the myth of the U.S. science gap. While no gap exists yet, an exodus of retiring U.S. scientists could create one." From the article: "...a country's capacity for scientific and commercial innovation does not correlate directly with its number of scientists and engineers. Hard work, imagination and business practices also matter."

Comments

power of numbers

[d_strand]

I really dont giva a shit about this, America can go down the drain for all i care. But this part of TFA is interesting:

Per million people, the United States graduates slightly more engineers with four-year degrees than China and three times as many as India.

Since china's population is at least 5 times larger than the US's, I guess China must be producing one hell of a lot more engineers than the US.

Lack of research support is a recent thing (Bush)

[ultramatricity]

You may have seen complaints about the growing science gap during "the Clinton years", but never has the president of the US directly eschewed basic research in a public forum until the election of the lowest common denominator--Bush. Now, 6 years into his administration we are finally hearing lip-service about basic research (which he'll fund about as well as "no child left behind"). This moron's driving us into the dirt. You need basic research not for the 1 problem you need fixed today, but for the thousand solutions it may provide tomorrow. You also need it because basic research is what attracts people who love science for the right reasons.

Immediate application of a research topic should not be a requisite for funding (what was that thing that no one saw an application for, again? Oh yeah--the internet.) But it is under this intellectually clumsy administration.

Don't even get me started on "applied vs. basic" research. One of them is Ph.D.-worthy, the other is simple technical training.

America destroyed by design

[danratherfoe]

To the extent that there is no US science gap, I believe that the myth is propogated for the specific purpose of creating one. If people fear that there is no change for a good job in technology, they will not train for a job in technology. The whole purpose of this exercise is to de-industrialize America and militarize America so that the only non-menial labor jobs are in homeland security or the military. Once this is done, the transition to a facist dictatorship will be complete, and the elite will use this country as an engine to invade and subjugate the entire planet.