Good Convo
@Phr3121 and
@Orgasmo. Fair points.
This is actually somewhat old news and a topic I've touched on probably in a thread that was doubtlessly flung into "The Dump" for no legitimate reason whatsoever but that's how Sherdog mods prefer to roll. QKD is very serious tech with some very large potential implications and America should consider doubling down on what it funnels to Los Alamos for R&D. Yeah, that one.
It's growing into a serious problem, but that sort of stuff is utterly non-existent in the molecular sciences dept of my university. Applying 'social justice' rhetoric to mathematics and the natural sciences will never work beyond spasticated critiques from a distance about the composition of the student body and/or work force, who receives awards and such but there's no changing the proofs and objective truths.
The people who study and work in mathematics and science will ultimately be the people who have the interest, skills, and desire to do so. I mean, I guess you technically could enforce some sort of quota system but it's going to be of drastic hindrance at the end of the day sans the former. If you want more diversity in these fields - really kind of irrelevant tbh - then focus on outreach and cultivating interest.
The most recent rolling 12-month Nature Index of HIJ research.
For the time being, the USA's global dominance in fundamental and applied research is still pretty jaw-dropping but China has already surpassed it where late development spending is concerned which is the stage of systematic use of knowledge that turns discoveries and technological breakthroughs into the manufacturing of products and processes. In a lot of ways, they're basically getting a free ride off US investment.
The public/private system of innovation that has served America so well since World War II has been slowing down and there's a lot of friction these days between academia and private industry, not to mention corporations becoming increasingly risk-averse whereas in the PRC a lot of tech companies are state-owned so there's not a whole lot of concern about R&D spending yielding losses until a product can become commercialized.