PrinceWith999Enemies , 8 months ago

This strikes me as a weird survey.

roughly 40% of respondents said the federal government is primarily responsible for the strength of science and tech in the U.S., followed by private companies (23%), academic institutions (22%) and nonprofit organizations (4%).

Why would you divide the federal government and academic institutions? The feds fund the majority of research at academic institutions, for both hard sciences and social sciences.

We’re still dealing with the post-Reagan legacy of “government bad, industry good,” and on top of that we have a determined and deliberate anti-intellectualism and anti-science movement in the Republican Party. That’s going to have an ongoing impact and it will take us decades to undo. That’s going to play a major role in both the perception and the reality of national scientific progress.

As much as all of us see science as a global endeavor, national institutions like the NIH are oriented towards advancing science developed in the US. Educational standards, scholarships (or free university education), and funding for basic and applied research all need to be increased.