NSF Finds Americans Are Falling Behind in Science and Tech

Since the National Science Foundation published “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” in 2006, their scathing and horror inspiring indictment of American science education and a warning about the dominance of American science and technology, some new developments have come to light. The New York Times has posted a summary (link here) of a rather depressing new study from the NSF (link here). The study finds the US dominance in science and technology is waning. Particularly important is how dependent the US is on foreign born scientists. Once the economies and educational institutions of India and China are sufficiently developed, there will be little need for scientists and engineers to immigrate from those countries. This may not be far off either.

Also noteworthy is that how ignorant must Americans are about science. My favorite NYT quote of all time comes form this story and is the following.

Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said. Many are unable to answer correctly when asked whether Earth moves around the Sun (it does).

Something about that “(it does)” part gets me in stitches. Apparently readers of the Times need reassurance about whether the Sun or Earth is more massive.

Perhaps most horrifying is how Americans compare against citizens of other developed nations with regard to both evolution and the big bang, two areas where average Americans are “noticeably more ignorant” than their foreign counterparts.