Monday’s New York Times runs this article on reductions in patents, publications, and Nobels from within the US. Is science in trouble in the US? Or do these measures suggest that science is in better shape world-wide?

The clear and growing competition from overseas suggests that dominance in all fields of science is a public policy goal that needs to be questioned. As well as the belief that basic science funding will get us there, and bring in the patents to boot.

Another straw on the “linear model” camel’s back.

Some quotes:
“Foreign advances in basic science now often rival or even exceed America’s, apparently with little public awareness of the trend or its implications for jobs, industry, national security or the vigor of the nation’s intellectual and cultural life.”

“Analysts say comparative American declines are an inevitable result of rising standards of living around the globe.”

“A major question, they add, is whether big spending automatically translates into big rewards, as it did in the past.”