Government Indifference to Science
Threatens US Ability to Compete in World Markets

I watched the star-studded panel on Charlie Rose try to explain what we need to do to revitalize the nation’s commitment to science and felt that although they are credentialed super-stars, they struggled to attempt to verbalize the present low esteem science is held in by many and what can be done about it.

The struggle, of course, was much bigger than portrayed here and some might suggest that the future of America depends on overcoming the present inertia and coming to grips with both the benefits and challenges posed by Science in America today.

Perhaps, it was too tall a task.

After all, science can or should impact virtually every aspect of our lives..

And that our present survival against growing odds may depend to a great extent on how well we understand science’s role in not only how we handle Global Warming but a whole host of challenges we face not to mention the specter of global competition where we are currently falling behind in the race.

The fact of the matter is that it was just a few decades ago when science was seen as the means to a solution of virtually all of our problems. Science would make food available, solve the problems of water and Global Warming. Breakthroughs in science would provide new materials from nanotube technology forward that would make possible all kinds of advances in our society. Genetic research would eventually cure us of all our illnesses and so forth.

Of course, such prospects were exaggerated but the core ideas were fundamentally solid. Science was the means by which our lives would improve. But, today, a growing body of those who are spiritually turned off by science or think it is some kind of voodoo fail to understand how inseparable it is from what we need to do to achieve our goals.

Such Antediluvian thinking just underscores how far we have drifted from scientific objectivity in the last eight years in the regime of George Bush..

Admittedly, over the last eight years, we have seen science on a collision course with religion as if Science and God were mutually exclusive. Under Bush, scientific progress was not only slowed, it was shown to be almost irrelevant to the goals of this administration. Even today many scientific jobs at State go unfilled and it took nearly a year to find a Scientific Adviser to the president who would pass muster—not because there weren’t many qualified; but only a few who were scientists but also shared a fundamentalist religious perspective. . Add to this misunderstanding of the nature of scientific inquiry, we can cite example after example of bad science posing as the government’s position—from the rejection of Kyota protocols to acceptance of the faulty science that has characterized the Star Wars program that should never have been authorized based on the level of understanding of the challenge.

Part of downplaying the value of science has to do with seeking out the support of Evangelicals, among whom a large percentage hold to fundamentalist views that suggest we dare not tamper with genes, that the notion of Evolution conflicts with fundamental views inherent in church liturgy and, overall., that science should not attempt to overlap in areas better left to spirituality.

Our scientific endeavors at the government level seem to end with NASA and exploration but, even there, the money is being misspent to show-boat rather than achieve scientific progress.

Extreme views that tend to reject most scientific progress are holding this country back from achieving its goals. .

I don’t mean to denigrate the Evangelical view, only to suggest that God and Science are more appropriately viewed by most of Christianity as compatible and not in conflict.

But the larger problem that we as a country has not addressed is that America, as a result of these deep seated feelings, and an unbridled mistrust of science and technology, is running further and further behind in the race for scientific mastery in a world that is dependent on break-through solutions and the clock is speeding u..

Consider the fact that whereas in the past, we always led in patent applications, since Bush we are now falling behind the efforts of other countries for the first time. Moreover, China is making large scale investments in science and we simply choose to ignore their gains or the fact that they now graduate more than ten times the engineers that we do. More to the point, other countries now are now leading the way in research and development.

What is dangerous about this is that science and technology had always provided America’s economic advantage, the stimulus for our break-through economy.

That’s not the case today.

And part of the reasons for our setback is mired in overlapping considerations.



In part, scientific progress has been impeded in the last eight years by an administration that coddles up to spirituality; that finds genetic research “tinkering with God’s work,” and Darwinian Evolution something questionable when subjected to their own litmus tests of spirituality.


But what we face is not a straight line consideration.

It requires the integration of all elements in the equation from theory to application to development and marketing.. And while we are often capable of research and development, we seem to fall down when it comes to marketing and manufacturing.

Why is that.

One reason, is that business and industry get no support from government unless they support military technology. More often than not, it’s because we have bartered off our assets or sold them outright on the open market. In addition, American investors disallow risk; it is no longer a part of their thinking. And without risk, you can’t make progress..

All to often, we have taken the route that is safer allowing others to engender the risk of manufacturing and marketing. And while it provides a safe profit for the share holder, it deprives America of break-through businesses that are being operated by our competition world-wide.

How could that happen in America?.

Since the 80’s, we have seen a rush by foreign investors to take over American assets. Many of these aggressive moves were simply to eliminate competition or to seize the fruits of technology for the benefit of the foreign company which has its allegiance elsewhere…. Further, where subcontractors are involved, quite often we will go overseas where bids are lower. In still other cases, we will only take our ideas to the licensing stage, allowing overseas countries to do the marketing and manufacturing.

This is not healthy overall for the future of American science and technology or the economic stimulus that a nation of three hundred million need to provide jobs for its people.and a steady level of growth commensurate with a presumed quality of life..

Let me cite just three examples that I am familiar with that help describe the complex dimensions of the problem..

In one case, I served as the lead consultant to one of the top ten American companies, a manufacturer that had developed in its labs the means of making artificial channels for allowing nerves to reform and grow and broken limbs to heal without requiring follow up surgery. To avoid risk, this great idea was never funded beyond the laboratory. It was my task to make the company palatable to foreign interests. Eventually, it sold to foreign interests for testing and manufacturing and marketing—potentially a great loss to American industry.

A second was the development of the “mag/lev” concept which was conceived on Long Island at Brookhaven Institute. Because the inventor could not find American companies interested in developing the idea further, it was sold off to foreign interests. Today’s high speed trains owe their technology to an American inventor who would have been happy to see the idea developed here.

A third case involved a technology that is now widespread in everything from elevators and trains to cameras. It’s called “fuzzy logic” and it was developed in this country maybe thirty years ago but could not be developed or marketed here for lack of money. The inventor eventually succumbed from pressure overseas and sold it to foreign interests which are now reaping the benefits.

But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

Such stories are common.

In another capacity, I was involved in working with the private sector and education in joint programs; in another, I consulted for small corporations who were seeking a competitive edge in overseas markets. In several instances, we saw how government failed to support its industries overseas, allowing competition to steal ideas and adapt them as their own.

In other situations, foreign interests tapped into the fruits of American inventiveness by simply purchasing subscriptions that detailed the results of our research institutions underwritten for the most part by taxpayer dollars.

Furthermore, today, American institutions invest heavily in training scientists and engineers from other countries who will return to their own countries to contribute to the development of their science and technology base.

A loss that we can’t make up here in America.

With all of the splitting off of American companies resulting from junk bond deals; and mergers and acquisitions that have taken place, the rate of new patents applied for is the lowest it has been in decades.

I believe and have always believed, that the thrust of the Greening of America, shipping our manufacturing base overseas was archly simplistic and wrong-headed; and it has provided a green light to industries to transfer their jobs overseas at the expense of American labor.

Now we are seeing the downside of this kind of pygmy thinking writ large.

At the same time, the military establishment, which seems to get the lion’s share of dollars today, seems intent on funneling all of our most cherished secrets to those who could easily become our opposition in the years ahead.

In these remarks, I have only touched on the more obvious reasons why we continue to fall behind in science and technology almost daily.

It is Europe not the US that is building the biggest Collider.

It is China that is making many of the break-throughs in science and technology.

In “green industries,” the lead has gone to Germany.

We are slow to consider alternative energy.

All of these comments form a picture and the picture of an America that is increasingly out of the loop is not merely dissatisfying, it rubs against the grain.

We need to reverse this apathy and get ourselves on course again.

But it will take a Goliath effort on the part of all Americans who vent their spleens by writing their representative until he or she gets the point.

Moreover, there is little time to waste for once the lead is lost, it may be very hard to regain.

I’ll leave you with that thought.

Les Aaron

The Ubiquitous Flying Blue Blog