Since World War II, the United States has dominated science and technology. With more than 400 Nobel Prizes, it dwarfs every other country. Major breakthroughs like nuclear energy, genetic engineering, and the internet were all led by researchers and engineers in the U.S. Today, it leads in every major technological category.

To a great extent, this has been the result of government action. Federal agencies such as the NIH, NSF, and DARPA spearheaded many of the most advanced technologies, and U.S. research universities have become beacons for top scientific talent. These advances have brought us greater prosperity, better health, and enhanced well-being. 

That’s why the recent news of an executive order that would give political oversight to scientific grants provoked such an uproar. Although the administration quickly backed off, the incident represents a troubling trend of political interference in science that has led to a major brain drain of scientific talent. Without a major change in course, the damage could be permanent. 

America wasn’t always a scientific mecca. In fact, at the beginning of the 20th century, bright young students often had to go to Europe to pursue advanced degrees in the sciences because American universities were considered second-rate. Yet as the U.S. industrialized, that began to change and, by the 1930s, with Europe increasingly in turmoil, world-class scientific talent began to flock to American shores.

In 1940, Vannevar Bush , who at the time was serving as president of the Carnegie Institution for Science , went to see President Roosevelt.

Source link