This is something which has been very well documented and mourned in a report from the National Academy of Sciences that was issued by a committee headed by Norman Augustine just a few
months ago and this report — which is called «he Gathering Storm» — lays out in some detail the concern that that [leaves us] with a long hole
over the
next couple of decades, because of weaknesses in [the] way we fund basic physical sciences, the way we are training people to do physical sciences, the way we treat science in elementary and high - school
programs — all of those factors, the way we pay teachers, the way we use the patent system where we try to provide incentives in some of the physical sciences; we are losing our leadership gradually to other countries, especially in Europe and [of] particular concern in Asia, where the rise of science in, particularly China, to a certain extent India and other parts of Southeast Asia, are cause for long - term concern.