Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

bigthink.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 129 posts

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#41

Post by supportengineer »

burnt-resistor wrote: post #6
mensetmanusman wrote: post #3

This is good for the world. Hyper concentration of talent reduces diversity.

Diversity of what (identity or thought), who, and/or where? Silicon Valley, the population of ordinary people residing there, 10 years ago (2015), heaved diversity. In corporate employment, it took decades to break through gender and race ceilings in industry to various degrees, but it largely happened, mostly, for better or worse. Bringing together people, capital, opportunity, and academia creates a vibrant ecosyst…

Are you arguing that prior to 2015 there was no diversity in Silicon Valley?

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#42

Post by Figs »

givemeethekeys wrote: post #8

Are institutions elsewhere massively increasing funding and positions? Aren't all the non-bankruptible tuition fees providing plenty of funding already? Where's that money going? The football team?

> Aren't all the non-bankruptible tuition fees providing plenty of funding already?

No. Having worked in academia for years, most of my funding came from the NSF. Sometimes it was from the state government, or private organizations partnering with us instead. Usually the university took a 50%+ cut of the grants we got as "overhead" too...

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#43

Post by Herring »

Americans getting a crash course in how white supremacy destroys itself. Did you know: Slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation.

Look at them now.

https://www.history.com/articles/slavery-profitable-southern...

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#44

Post by cgh »

wslh wrote: post #11

I don't clearly see how a massive exodus of American scientists moving abroad could happen. While I understand that young scientists might find it easier to relocate, the decision becomes significantly far more complicated for couples, even when both partners are scientists. For other countries or regions to become truly competitive, they would also need to increase their investment in science significantly [1]. [1]…

Canada is recruiting US scientists: https://www.cbc.ca/news/health/us-scientists-canada-1.750252...

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#46

Post by i_cannot_hack »

linotype wrote: post #32
magicalhippo wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The gov't here in Norway put $10 million on the table[1] for 2026 as a response to what's going on in the US. Due to reasons they can't direct it solely at US researchers, but the intent is there: The minister has followed the recent developments in the United States closely: "Academic freedom is under pressure in the United States, and it is an unpredictable situation for many researchers in what has been the world'…

That’s like a couple of DoE grants in the US.

It's an example showing that institutions elsewhere are actually responding to this (a question asked by the parent post), and Norway will very likely not be alone here.

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#48

Post by bobthepanda »

sevensor wrote: post #37
ribosometronome wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would we want tuition to support research?

If we assume science still has new things to tell the world, who better for researchers to share their discoveries with than the next generation? That’s the argument, anyway. In practice, it’s a crapshoot. Many researchers are dreadful educators due to incentives, training, and disposition. Every now and then you’ll run across a researcher who is also a great educator, but there’s no institutional force that pushes t…

That explains why you would want researchers to teach students, but not why students (who generally have little to no income to speak of and are already struggling with university costs in the US) should directly pay for research

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#49

Post by krapp »

Herring wrote: post #43

Americans getting a crash course in how white supremacy destroys itself. Did you know: Slavery was so profitable, it sprouted more millionaires per capita in the Mississippi River valley than anywhere in the nation. Look at them now. https://www.history.com/articles/slavery-profitable-southern...

What? White supremacy isn't anywhere close to destroying itself. The power base just shifted from the plantation owners to CEOs.

Re: American science to soon face its largest brain drain in history

#50

Post by dahart »

andsoitis wrote: post #4

> Many of the most valuable scientific organizations in the world, including NOAA, NASA, the NSF, the CDC, the EPA, and the FDA, I don’t dismiss the premise of the article and I think it is a shame how these organizations are being impacted, but I don’t know that these are the best exemplars of cutting edge science being shut down that will lead to America’s downfall from its scientific perch.

What are better exemplars?
Post reply on HN