U.S. Is Losing Its Dominance in the Sciences

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

NYTimes. 
May 3, 2004
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/03/science/03RESE.html?hp
By WILLIAM J. BROAD

"The United States has started to lose its worldwide dominance in critical
areas of science and innovation, according to federal and private experts
who point to strong evidence like prizes awarded to Americans and the
number of papers in major professional journals. ...


The United States' share of its own industrial patents has fallen steadily
over the decades and now stands at 52 percent.  ...

A more concrete decline can be seen in published research. Physical
Review, a series of top physics journals, recently tracked a reversal in
which American papers, in two decades, fell from the most to a minority.
Last year the total was just 29 percent, down from 61 percent in 1983.

...

For all the spending, the United States began to experience a number of
scientific declines in the 1990's, boom years for the nation's overall
economy.

For instance, scientific papers by Americans peaked in 1992 and then fell
roughly 10 percent, the National Science Foundation reports. Why? Many
analysts point to rising foreign competition, as does the European
Commission, which also monitors global science trends. In a study last
year, the commission said Europe surpassed the United States in the
mid-1990's as the world's largest producer of scientific literature.

...

In a recent study, CHI Research, a consulting firm in Haddon Heights,
N.J., found that researchers in Japan, Taiwan and South Korea now account
for more than a quarter of all United States industrial patents awarded
each year, generating revenue for their own countries and limiting it in
the United States.
***