outsourcing to the enemy?

priorities matter

The foundation of this country, perhaps surprisingly to some, is science and associated innovation rather than democracy or Christianity or something else. We have built corporations, superb universities for intellectual discourse and research, the military, the space program and so much on science and appreciation of what can be done as a result.

Therefore, Scientific American citeing a sharp rebuke from Marcia McNutt, National Academy of Sciences’s president, merits a few minutes’s time. McNutt spoke on 26 June of this year about “the declining share of the most cited sciences papers, for instance, and the rate at which new drugs and technologies hit the market has flatlined over the past several decades”. Her condemnation of declining commitments and skills in STEM education are hardly new yet thoroughly disappointing after a generation of purported dedication to addressing this enduring concern. At the same time the Chinese most definitely are committing to scientific research and overall education.

McNutt proposed educators pushing students to build off their interests in developing innovation; curiosity can spur commitment. But we cannot pass over basic work of learning science’s canon of facts as well as methods; wishful thinking doesn’t make up for knowing a bit of math, biology, chemistry, and figures. Additionally, ScientificAmerican notes the path of discovery is much more compelling to draw a student into a career rather than a mere recitation of facts, much like the debate historians have about teaching dates versus implication in practical terms. McNutt and others condemn the evidence our test scores are not rising and that interest in the field is falling. In short, science and innovation are taking quite a hit in contemporary America, as they sadly have been since the “do it yourself” education reforms of the 1960s and 70s.

Simultaneously, China’s determination to become a global power, if not unparalleled leader in all aspects of science, technology and innovation, illustrates why the Middle Kingdom is emphasizing science, research, and overall STEM education. Chinese increase in patent applications, for example, if an outcome frequently mentioned as a change from the past. Xi encourages science often.

I am skeptical of some of the hoopla because the Chinese culture avoids challenging authority, including scientific ones. The model is still “sage from the stage” rather the Socratic method. Additionally, the education system still appears hidebound as a rot memorization format rather than genuine inquiry. But that is really little comfort as we can only control our own lack of understanding that abandoning math and science at a relatively early age results in career-long deficits in logical thinking and scientific knowledge vital for the problems we face as a society.

Our dismal future in science results not only from poor science and math scores in standardized testing, of course. Test scores are manifestations rather than causes. It’s an attitude across society to belittle science as nerdy or irrelevant, if not worse. The devaluing of scientific careers, broadly defined, as we see increased efforts to promote pseudoscience or complete fabrications from whole cloth further exacerbates the trend. The public inability to see the reason the scientific method matters, whether in vaccine use or some other field, diminishes the likelihood of potential career choices by upcoming generations.

Basic science illiteracy is so dangerous. Schools under siege by parents who seek to prevent educators from using legitimately replicable scientific methods should keep all of us up at night yet have become subsumed in the meaningless category of “culture wars”. These are not culture wars but a return to the ignorance that allowed centuries of doctors to blame “poor humors” for illness or the myth that the earth was the center of the universe, if not a flat world altogether.

Science is important as a method for cultivating respectful, verifiable results which are part of civil discourse. Instead of fostering vibrant discussions, we are seeing attacks on science because it is different or evil or some other fanciful defense of preferences in place of facts. Science is a thinking process that opens doors.

If we continue down a path minimizing the centrality of the types of scientific explorations for which this country was renowned, we are likely to fall further behind rather than ever catching up with competitors. Are there links to our failures on some of our biggest problems and not seeing a society determined to learn about them? Seems plausible to me.

Are we going to be happy outsourcing our science to Chinese thirty years from now? What about our AI upon which we increasingly depend yet don’t seem focused on undergirding with an ever greater cadre of great minds to expand its potential.

We are still admiring the problems of the world rather than providing ourselves with the methods and knowledge to solve them, as I see it.

Thank you for reading Actions today. I welcome any and all comments—and I read them all. I even respond much of the time!

We encountered visitors last night on our evening walkabout.

If you can believe it, Labor Day is the United States is a mere fortnight from Monday. Cooler air harkens, schools begin, and we can support our future scientists by lauding the field, if nothing else. Where we put our time and words is tremendously important to the next generation and the one after. Be well and be safe. FIN

Saima S. Iqbal, “American Sciences Slips into Dangerous Decline, Experts War, while Chinese Research Surges”, www.scientificamerican.com