U.S. Remains Leader in Technology

Jan 17, 11:27 AM

The United States remains the world leader in scientific and technological innovation, but its dominance is threatened by economic development elsewhere, particularly in Asia, the National Science Board said in its biennial report on science and engineering.

The position of the United States is especially delicate, the agency said Tuesday, given its reliance on foreign-born workers to fill technical jobs.

The board is the oversight agency for the National Science Foundation, the leading source of funds for basic research in the physical sciences.

The report, at www.nsf.gov/statistics/indicators, recommends increased financing for basic research and greater "intellectual interchange" between researchers in academia and industry. The board also called for better efforts to track the globalization of high- tech manufacturing and services and their implications for the American economy.

Over all, the report said, surveys of science and mathematics education were both "disappointing and encouraging." Fourth- and eighth-grade students in all ethnic groups showed improvement in math, the report said, but progress in science was far less robust.

Knowledge gaps persisted between demographic groups, with European- and Asian-Americans scoring higher than other groups.

Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said. Many are unable to answer correctly when asked whether the earth moves around the sun .

They are not noticeably more ignorant than people in other developed countries except on two subjects, evolution and the Big Bang. Although these ideas are organizing principles underlying modern biology and physics, many Americans do not accept them.

Originally published by The New York Times Media Group.

(c) 2008 International Herald Tribune. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. U.S. Remains Leader in Technology
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