Foreign advances in basic science now often rival or even exceed America's, apparently with little public awareness of the trend or its implications for jobs, industry, national security or the vigor of the nation's intellectual and cultural life.
Naturally, I would never begrudge other countries their scientific achievements, and part of this shift is certainly due to better education and more opportunity around the world. Still, it seems to me a sympton of our complacency and completely screwed up priorities that we're starting to fall behind. We spend less and less on science, education, and the arts and more and more on unnecessary wars, fuel-inefficient cars, weight-loss surgery, and boner pills.
I'm sure many scientists would argue that America still produces a great number of brilliant innovations, but it's hard to not feel like we've lost our edge. Remember, all empires fall. This one is really showing some warning signs.
