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.