Re: Asians to dominate space too?

Brian Tung wrote:
Stephen Astro wrote:

What has China accomplished? Ever? (That the USA didn't accomplish
first)


I'm sure this is a troll, but...

Writing (not invented for the first time in China, but certainly long
before the Phoenicians, who created the ancestor of the Roman alphabet
that English is written with). The invention of paper. Gunpowder.
Pretty significant stuff, I'd aver.

Among other things.


Oh, and relevant to this newsgroup, a tradition of supernova and comet
observation thousands of years old.

Indeed.


Not to say the U.S. hasn't been a leader in technological innovation
for about a century, and the preeminent leader for the last half-century
plus, but the rhetorical question is nonsense. I mean, come on, the
U.S. as a Western country (let alone a world power) is a few hundred
years old.


Funny how we seem to forget that James Watt was from the UK :)

Now, why did the U.S. become the pre-eminent leader in science and
technology? There are lots of factors, but surely a significant one
is the exodus of top-notch scientific minds from Europe in the mid to
late 1930s. Germany played the xenophobia card to its detriment--a
trend that I fear is happening to the U.S. today.


I think that reasoning is a bit flawed, Brian. U.S. leadership really was rooted in developments and events before the 30s. The European exodus may have accelerated it, but did not enable it.

And I don't see a similar exodus from U.S. today due to any xenophobia. We are losing ground because, for a variety of reasons .. from Government to students' personal choice .. we are are falling behind in science and technology education. Alas, we are not training enough scientists and engineers to feed any substantial exodus!

Phil
.