Global science: U.S. is still in the game

ANN ARBOR, Mich.-Globalization is a benefit to U.S. scientific achievement, not a threat. That's the conclusion of a new book that weighs the evidence from a number of recent surveys to answer its title question: "Is American Science in Decline?" American science is in good health, according to the book's authors, sociologists Yu Xie of the University of Michigan and Alexandra Achen Killewald of Harvard University. Although there are areas of concern, they maintain that traditional American values will help the nation maintain its strength in science for the foreseeable future, and that globalization will promote efficiency in science through knowledge sharing. "In an age when other countries are catching up, American science will inevitably become less dominant but it will not decline relative to its own past," Xie said. "As technology continues to change the American economy, better-educated workers with a range of scientific skills will be in high demand." Among the evidence that Xie and Killewald cite for their optimism: Data from the U.S. Census and American Community Survey show that the scientific labor force in the United States has grown as a share of the labor force, from 1.3 percent in 1960 to 3.3 percent in 2007. Scientific topics are featured as frequently in the popular media in the first decade of the 21st century as they were in 1950, as measured by New York Times best-sellers and Newsweek cover stories. American high school students are doing more coursework and performing better in mathematics and science than in the past, although their interest in attaining science education has shown a moderate decline.