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We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

theguardian.com

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Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#111

Post by robk »

roughly wrote: post #60
agumonkey wrote: post #46

It's also repelling their own citizen. Lots of videos of people being fed up with the ambient angst in the US any time they come back from another country.

This is a thing that you don’t notice until you experience it. No more compelling argument that we’re doing something wrong as a nation than that first time stepping onto an American street after visiting a civilized country.

I live in a civilized European country and gravely miss the freedom of speech I had in the USA that I don't here. I'm terrified one tweet will get me jailed for 30 months.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#112

Post by lateforwork »

In all important areas such as clean energy, fusion energy, biotechnology and AI the Chinese government is heavily investing in and pushing Chinese companies to lead the world.

China Is Outspending the U.S. to Achieve the ‘Holy Grail’ of Clean Energy: Fusion See: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/13/climate/china-us-fusion-e...

America's lead in biotechnology is slipping, while China has made synthetic biology a national priority. In the iGEM international competition, only one American school finished in top 10, seven were from China. See: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/teens-may-have-come-up-with-new... Or watch video: https://youtu.be/VEj5I4CBbgU

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#113

Post by operation_moose »

dietr1ch wrote: post #37
axismundi wrote: post #2

Come to Europe, we have cookies ;)

I'd love to, but where to? The Swiss are trying to cap population, the Germans elected the AfD, the UK no longer counts.

Ireland is solid, especially for any sort of biotech/medical. Strong critical skills immigration path, good wages, pretty much every major company has a facility there (many rivaling the US sites in size), friendly and welcoming place. Housing is a bit of struggle, mainly for renters.

I made the leap this year. No regrets.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#114

Post by e40 »

beloch wrote: post #25

>"Billions of dollars have been wiped from research budgets, almost 8,000 grants have been cancelled at NIH and the US National Science Foundation alone, and more than 1,000 NIH employees have been fired." ---------------- Scientists go where science is funded. A large proportion of U.S. scientists are also immigrants, who will tend to go where immigrants are welcomed.

Meanwhile, China has "genius camps" for young people, to skim off the cream of the cream of the crop, so they can go on to do amazing things for their country. It blows my mind what we've done in the last year, to damage our ability to compete on the world stage.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#115

Post by noosphr »

xiphias2 wrote: post #79

USA is still one of the top countries for scientists. Just as an example Europe had a few years of exporting the best GLP-1 drugs (finally something in which Europe was leader in science), Eli Lily quickly took it over. In software San Francisco is still the top for AI research: even when Peter Steinberger didn't know what he will do with OpenClaw, it was clear to him that the only place to move to was USA. Terrence…

>In software San Francisco is still the top for AI research

What was the last thing that a major US Lab published? It's all trade secrets.

Chinese labs are the only ones publishing results as they happen.

The US is in the position it was for semiconductor manufacturing, first it was labs and open science. Then by the 80s fabs started costing millions and universities stopped being able to contribute and nothing got published.

Now it's getting to trillions and if Intel goes under there is no one in the US who knows how to make any semiconductor generation newer than 2010.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#116

Post by danaris »

iugtmkbdfil834 wrote: post #73
danaris wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have vast amounts of resources. More than enough to supply the basic needs of everyone in the country. The US is currently choosing to divert absolutely staggering amounts of those resources away from things we have traditionally valued—science, art, infrastructure, taking care of the least fortunate among us, etc—and using them instead to enrich the already-wealthy, in the most blatant and cruel ways. There is no…

Eh, I mean if you put it that way, I suppose all those budgets are just a show and not at all an indication of how utterly fucked we are as a country unless we both: a) massively reduce spending b) massively raise taxes In very real terms, there is only so much money. Some additional money can be borrowed, but we a slowly ( but surely ) reaching a breaking point on that as well. The issue is: no one is willing to sac…

Yes we have to massively raise taxes.

We need to claw back billions and billions and billions of dollars from people for whom it will make zero difference in their daily lives, so that we can spend it on people for whom $100 can change their month, and $10000 can change their life.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#117

Post by dietr1ch »

Winblows11 wrote: post #55
dietr1ch wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd love to, but where to? The Swiss are trying to cap population, the Germans elected the AfD, the UK no longer counts.

> The Swiss are trying to cap population > the UK no longer counts Well the Swiss are not in EU either, but both are still in Europe

Well, it's hard to freely speak my mind about the Brits w/o getting downvoted, but they created a large problem and let their dogs out on whoever complains about it.

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#118

Post by BigGreenJorts »

denkmoon wrote: post #87
bluGill wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That has always been true, and for everywhere. However very few countries are anywhere near as accepting for foreigners as the US as a whole despite the many who are not. Canada is just as accepting from what I can tell - I don't know enough about Australia to know. Most other countries are far worse - though many will not admit it just how bad their country is.

Sadly Australia is very welcoming to foreigners until you get about 50km out of the major cities. Our xenophobe political party (One Nation) has had a significant rally in the last few years, to the point where by some measures it is the second largest party.

That's probably all that matters TBH. If you can attract top talent to major cities where top schools, research firms, and companies in general, what does the opinions and attitudes of people 50km away matter?

Ok It probably matters during elections and the policies that lead up to them (must appease the rural vote with mostly symbolic and emotionally wretching anti-immigrant rhetoric) but cities need skilled (and unskilled) labour and when they get what they need they stand to generate a lot of money (re taxes to the policy makers from earlier).

Re: We're no longer attracting top talent: the brain drain killing American science

#119

Post by [deleted] »

pitched wrote: post #103
mikestorrent wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, perhaps it is time for large, ethnically-homogenous countries that are on the ascent to adopt diversity policies of the sort that the US was approaching before the "vibe shift"

Canada is largely still homogeneous but still welcoming to immigrants and very close to the US. Rather than China totally changing cultures, I think it’s more likely that US-based companies will have large satellite offices in middle powers.

[deleted]
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