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The U.S. share of global science and technology activity has shrunk in some areas even as absolute activity has continued to grow, as China and other Asian countries have invested in science and engineering education and increased their research spending.
That's one of the main takeaways of the "State of U.S. Science and Engineering" 2020 report, published by the National Science Board Wednesday. The report has historically been published every other year, but starting with this year's edition, the NSB is transitioning its format from a single report published every two years to a series of shorter reports issued more frequently.
"While the U.S. remains a leading player, other countries have seen the benefits of investing in research and education and are following our example," said Julia Phillips, chair of the NSB Science and Engineering Policy Committee. "While China is not the only story, its dramatic annual rate of R&D [research and development] growth is impressive. Other countries have seen the benefits of investing in research, and China is on a path to shortly become the world's largest R&D performer.
National Science Board report finds US dominance in science is slipping
State of U.S. Science and Engineering - 2020 report
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday January 19 2020, @03:35PM
Are religions or social issues a more inhibiting force now a days?
Try doing any research whatsoever in genetics or suggest anything that runs against tabula rasa / the blank slate hypothesis, and you'll get labeled, removed, and blacklisted faster than you can blink, literally even if you are the person who took the Nobel Prize for discovering DNA. That's because of social issues. I'm not sure where religion is even playing a part anymore. One might argue stem cell research, but that's now completely legal in the US and there are even multibillion dollar government institutions dedicated solely to it. Similarly for things like evolution which is now a regular part of curriculum everywhere.
I do think China is winning largely on that social issues aspect. They're focused on optimal outcomes while we're increasingly focused on equal outcomes.