Slashdot Mirror
The Real Science Gap
walterbyrd writes "This article attempts to explain why the US is struggling in its competition with other countries in the realm of scientific advancement. 'It's not insufficient schooling or a shortage of scientists. It's a lack of job opportunities. Americans need the reasonable hope that spending their youth preparing to do science will provide a satisfactory career.' I can hardly believe that somebody actually understands the present situation. It continues, 'The current approach — trying to improve the students or schools — will not produce the desired result, the experts predict, because the forces driving bright young Americans away from technical careers arise elsewhere, in the very structure of the US research establishment. For generations, that establishment served as the world’s nimblest and most productive source of great science and outstanding young scientists. Because of long-ignored internal contradictions, however, the American research enterprise has become so severely dysfunctional that it actively prevents the great majority of the young Americans aspiring to do research from realizing their dreams.'"
We must not allow a MINE SHAFT GAP...err...science gap...
Faith works much better.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Is that more or less lucrative than patent law?
Jocks get their pussy free, lawyers can buy professional pussy, and doctors are up to their elbows in pussy. Nerds? They get the leavings.
You can't fix the problem until you identify it exactly.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
It's almost impossible to get a tenure-track job if you're more than a few years out of grad school.
The trick is to become a famous researcher, then you get offered a tenured job.
Support SETI@home
There is a shortage of engineers. Not just any engineers, however: engineers who will work 80 hours/week for less pay than a janitor. This is the kind of engineer that American corporations really, really "need" more of.