As U.S. emerges from dark age, Canada's scientific edge fades (megabarf alert)

Globe and Mail ^ | January 24, 2009 | CAROLYN ABRAHAM AND ELIZABETH CHURCH

[neverdem]

Scientists across America are celebrating the passing of the Bush administration as the end of a dark age, a bleak stretch in which research budgets shrank and everything — stem cells, sex education, climate change, and the very origins of the Grand Canyon — became a point of conflict.

President Barack Obama has ignited a new optimism among the white coats. In his inaugural speech, he promised to "restore science to its rightful place," hinting at nothing short of a renaissance in the fields of health, energy, the environment and America's schools.

As a testament to that, the United States Friday became the first country in the world to approve a clinical trial of embryonic stem cells in human patients.

But in Canada's research community, Mr. Obama's plans have sparked anxiety that if this country fails to keep pace, it will have a tougher time recruiting smart people and convincing talent not to flock south. In short, Canada could lose its competitive edge to the Obama advantage...

[SunkenCiv]

Scientists across America are celebrating the passing of the Bush administration as the end of a dark age, a bleak stretch in which research budgets shrank and everything -- stem cells, sex education, climate change, and the very origins of the Grand Canyon -- became a point of conflict.

Op-ed masquerading as news.

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[SunkenCiv]

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[wideminded]

Hundreds of billions of public money spent on “alternative energy” research by the federal govt over the past 40 years and we have almost NOTHING to show for it. The “rightful place” is for the private sector to perform most of the R&D

What have we got to show from them?

Basic scientific research is usually not funded by the private sector because there is no immediate ROI.

I don't know the details of where the government may have put money into "alternative energy" aside from fusion research. I do know that we wouldn't have a biotechnology industry in this country without many years of federally funded research.

To do the most fundamental forms of research, somebody has to commit to it who is not expecting to necessarily make an immediate buck from it.