Slashdot Mirror
China Will Lead World Scientific Research By 2020
Hugh Pickens writes "An analysis of papers published in 10,500 academic journals across the world shows that, in terms of academic papers published, China is now second only to the US, and will take first place by 2020. Chinese scientists are increasing their output at a far faster rate than counterparts in rival 'emerging' nations such as India, Russia, and Brazil. The number of peer-reviewed papers published by Chinese researchers rose 64-fold over the past 30 years. 'China is out on its own, far ahead of the pack,' says James Wilsdon, of the Royal Society in London. 'If anything, China's recent research performance has exceeded even the high expectations of four or five years ago.' According to Wilsdon, three main factors are driving Chinese research. First is the government's enormous investment, with funding increases far above the rate of inflation, at all levels of the system from schools to postgraduate research. Second is the organized flow of knowledge from basic science to commercial applications. And third is the efficient and flexible way in which China is tapping the expertise of its extensive scientific diaspora in North America and Europe, tempting back mid-career scientists with deals that allow them to spend part of the year working in the West and part in China." Here's the Financial Times's original article.
Read http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/08/28/060828fa_fact2?currentPage=all for more on how the Chinese approach science...
Spys? That's quite harsh. There's many scientists from different countries working all around the globe. Many European ones in the US as well, and US scientists in Europe for instance. If a US scientist works in the EU, does that make him a traitor or a spy? It makes him a scientist. Science advances through different information being shared and further developed on. China and the US are not in a war, so to label them as spies seems rather odd.
"If anyone needs me, I'm in the angry dome."
rival 'emerging' nations such as India, Russia, and Brazil.
It was 18th century when Russia was "emerging" in scientific research.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Fatherland. Motherland is Mother Russia
As far as I know, they did not provide anything of importance.
Then you don't know much. Google "Alexander Feklisov" to get started. People like Klaus Fuchs handed over voluminous amounts of extremely detailed information. The Joe 1 device was an almost exact copy of the Fat Man because Beria insisted starting with proven designs first. Yes, it is true the Soviets had extremely capable talent like Kurchatov and he used the espionage in the best possible way. The spy information was primarily used as a check and confirmation of their own progress. If a young physicist came in his office with a hot sounding idea, Kurchatov would open a safe, look at some papers, and then say "No, try again." So they both came up with their own theoretical understanding as quickly as possible while avoiding costly blind alleys that we had to go down. Another example of a blind alley avoided was something called "Wigner's Disease" that very nearly required an extensive refit of the Hanford enrichment facilities.
After the initial device, the Soviets didn't copy nearly as much but the espionage allowed their initial development to focus almost exclusively on productive ideas and shaved years off their nuclear program.