American Science is in Dangerous Decline while Chinese Research Surges, Experts Warn
www.scientificamerican.com
The U.S. sorely needs a coordinated national research strategy, says Marcia McNutt, president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences
  • eldavi@lemmy.ml
    203·
    3 months ago

    i’ve heard from managers, engineers and scientists in new york, los angeles, austin, and san francisco that the quality of american engineers & scientists was severely lacking.

    i took the fact that they would only say this in private to a friendly group of people in a non-professional setting and, even then, never in english to be nothing more than anecdotal; but i hearing it for the first time in chicago this past weekend and reading this article is making me see that there’s truth to it.

    • wewbullEnglish
      71·
      3 months ago

      There’s a problem in engineering education from anywhere in my opinion. The main issue is teaching knowledge, not understanding. This is then backed up with technology being so impenetrable these days that it’s next to impossible to self teach by ripping stuff apart to see how it works.

      This combination is producing people at the end of their education having very little idea how to work on anything.

  • cybermass@lemmy.ca
    172·
    3 months ago

    Crazy what happens when you defend public education and build an economic system that relies on a bunch of dummies going to jail to act as slave labor.

    Even crazier what happens when your “opponent” does literally the exact opposite.

    Hurr sure tik Tok brain rot. God damn how can half of an entire country be this stupid?

  • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
    9·
    3 months ago

    Just one person’s perspective but I spent 10’s of thousands on a stem degree at a mid tier public university and did some research during undergrad. The program i was in dropped by over 2/3 the number of students from first year to fourth as people changed degrees or dropped out so there was some challenge. I could have stayed in academia to do grad/post grad work for about half the starting pay as working in the public sector or non profits, and higher for corpos. The prospects were non competitive pay for about twice the work to stay in academia at least when I was looking around a decade ago. If I didn’t have to take on so much debt for tuition I probably would have stayed.

  • /home/pineapplelover@lemm.ee
    7·
    3 months ago

    It’s cause we can’t fucking fund research. Physicists, for example, are one of the most unemployed while being one of the smartest people of our time, are barely scraping by.

    Engineering? Engineering is mostly in defense creating weapons. Imagine if NASA had the amount of money of defense. The world would be transformed so much.

  • ChillPenguin@lemmy.world
    6·
    3 months ago

    When you think you’re number one for not doing anything. You let off the gas. Maybe keep pushing, invest in education, fix societal problems… You know… Effectively govern. But I know we won’t. A third of the country will continue beating its chest and fucking everyone at the same time. USA USA USA