Tide of International Science Moving Against US, EU

explosivejared writes "The Economist has a story on the increasing scientific productivity of countries like China, India, and Brazil relative to the field's old guards in America, Europe, and Japan. Scientific productivity in this sense includes percent of GDP spent on R&D and the overall numbers of researchers, scholarly articles, and patents that a country produces. The article notes increasing levels of international collaboration on scholarly scientific articles in leading journals. From the article: '[M]ore than 35% of articles in leading journals are now the product of international collaboration. That is up from 25% 15 years ago — something the old regime and the new alike can celebrate.'" Note that the "old guard" are still firmly in the lead on these measures of scientific prowess, but the growth rate is higher in the newcomer states.

Comments

Chinese science

[AnonymousClown]

FTFA:

But citation of English-language articles in Chinese journals by other publications remains low.

Maybe it's because Chinese science isn't trustworthy enough?

Re:We don't need no science

[LetterRip]

We have Sarah Palin and she can see Russia from her front porch

What Palin actually said was

"They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska."

http://www.slate.com/id/2200155/

Which is literally true since from Little Diomede part of US territory and Alaska you can see Big Diomede which is under Russian control.

A legitimate critique of Palin would be that she considered Russia being visible from an island of Alaska, as saying something useful about her international experience and foreign relations.

Re:patents/capita

[Beetle B.]

I completely agree with your comment.

Yet, when I look at universities in the US, they play a similar game. In the last university I was in (top 5 in engineering), the faculty were consistently pressured to produce patents, and many of the faculty agreed it was the right path to go on.

And heck, even quantity of publications is a dubious measure...

Re:Just too bad

[gman003]

You seem to be overestimating how "united" the US actually is. Really, it isn't - saying "Louisiana is banning evolution, the whole US is next" is like saying "Serbia is banning evolution, all of Europe is next". Yes, we're united militarily and economically, but many things are decided at the state level or lower. As far as education is concerned, it's pretty much as follows:

• The Federal Gov't sets certain basic standards such as "what basic skills need to be taught", and provides some funding.
• The State Gov'ts set standards like "what textbooks can be used" and "what specific things need to be taught", and provide some more funding.
• The County Gov'ts control most practical things like "how much do we pay teachers" and "what textbooks do we use", and provide the majority of the funding.

Besides, it is extremely likely that, should Louisiana "remove" evolution, it will be challenged in courts, and thrown out. The case Epperson v. Arkansas did so back in '68, with a rather strongly-worded decision.