John Pomfret's recent report, "China Pushing the Envelope,"says that China is pouring loads of money and talent into developing scientists. The thrust of the article is economic -- that China is becoming "the second superpower" and will increasingly become a threat to U.S. economic dominance.
That may be true, and if so, it would be regrettable for us. But... well, that's competition. I think we in the U.S. still understand a little something about competition, and we've prospered without placing much emphasis on "pure" scientific research. We prefer the applied version, and have done well commercially by picking up and developing ideas conceived and researched by others. So it is not a foregone conclusion that we are losing our competitive edge just because the Chinese are investing scads of money in science education.
There was one telling line in Pomfret's piece, though, that stood out to me: "Unburdened by social and legal constraints common in the West, China's trailblazing scientists are also pushing the limits of ethics and principle...."
One of our burdens in the U.S., and one that could seriously harm us, is the alienation of a large part of our population from science as they flock to various forms of anti-scientific religious doctrine. Religious objections to stem cell research, a turn toward forms of non-scientific medicine, belief in "creationism" -- all these and more weaken our efforts to develop science and scientists. Yes, we can easily lose our technological lead if we refuse to go where research leads us, and cower ignorantly under rocks instead.
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