Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
scientificamerican.com
Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
1–10 of 14 posts
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#2I think the education process is too long. Schools benefit from long education so the time a student can get to do "real research" is put further and further in the future.
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#3I posted the story, but actually disagree with the author's assessment. I don't think when people refer to the lack of scientists and engineers in the US, they are referring to a lack of tenure-track faculty. The shortage of technically skilled people is in industry, not academia.
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#4The education process is long, and it isn't very glamorous or sexy. When someone unveils an engineering marvel its likely met with "hmm...thats nice, lets see what the kids on jersey shore are doing tonight".
Also innovation is stifled by a "simpsons did it" mentality, where if any layperson can understand each component of a technology, the think that integrating it would be easy.
How many people have you met that "invented" something only to have it "stolen". Such as putting a cell phone and a camera to produce ta-da...a camera phone!!
I support organizations that give students actual project experience. FIRST is a good one: http://www.usfirst.org/
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#5Considering many people believe creationism is a valid scientific concept, my answer would be "not nearly enough"
And, BTW, this is not a US-only problem.
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#6We need to shift away from our dependency on the grant system, and the only way to do that is to make basic research profitable for private industry. I just don't see any other way to do it.
What America really needs isn't more scientists, although that would be nice. What's required is more scientific training for entrepreneurs and business people, so that they can help shepherd projects out of the lab and into products. If having a research lab becomes viewed as a competitive advantage by investors, then getting funding becomes simple.
There are a few major success stories, where companies consistently use advanced research to churn out profitable products - Google and 3M spring immediately to mind. We should be trying to replicate those models.
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#7Considering many people believe creationism is a valid scientific concept, my answer would be "not nearly enough" And, BTW, this is not a US-only problem.
You can get an advanced degree in 'creation science' too: http://www.nwcreation.net/colleges.html
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#8Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#9A 2001 poll conducted by the National Science Foundation in the US revealed the pervasiveness of the problem. Results showed that:
-Only 48% of Americans knew that the earliest humans did not live at the same time as the dinosaurs.
-Only 22% could properly define a molecule.
-Only 45% knew what DNA was and that lasers don't work by focusing sound waves
-Only 48% knew that electrons were smaller than atoms.
I can not comment how many times I have worked with people that have no grasp of the fundamentals of science and the scientific method. Not only we not produce enough scientists, but we produce a ridiculous amount of scientifically illiterate people.
Re: Does the U.S. Produce Too Many Scientists?
#10Considering many people believe creationism is a valid scientific concept, my answer would be "not nearly enough" And, BTW, this is not a US-only problem.
"Research Scientists" and "People with basic scientific literacy" are different sets — it's perfectly possible for the first set to be too large and the second to be too small.