America's Scientific Future - Promising?

[foofighter4774]

With the shuttle on its last flight, and having to rely on the Russians to get to the ISS, plus the recent proposal to cancel the Hubble Space Telescope's successor, I don't have a good feeling about the future of American scientific dominance. Even more importantly, look at our test scores in math and science compared to other countries. Add to that so many of our "leaders" in DC that think the universe is 6k y/o and that polluting this planet doesn't matter, and you have potential legislation that doesn't really care about or understand the importance of basic research to improving our country. What are your thoughts and feelings?

NOTE: Sorry for adding in the Democrats vs. Republicans comments. Thanks for the Neil Tyson video. I guess I should think before making sweeping generalizations. Although when it comes to certain well-established origins theories there is still a strong party divide (not because of Republican ideology itself, but because today the party is somewhat hijacked by many Genesis literalists) , applied science certainly isn't as affected, which was the main focus of this topic to begin with.

[llandrywyn]

This thread is going all sorts of bad places.

Before it gets locked; the end of an era marked by the last shuttle launch is a sad day. Hopefully private enterprise will start to really pick up in the area in a meaningful way.

[Activi-T]

Scientific progress isn't an area you can dominate in.

The whole spirit of scientific advancement is about the sharing of knowledge and the bettering of our understanding as a species. Thats the reason why projects like CERN can go ahead and work well because alot of countries contribute to it and everyone benefits from it.

[Deleted]

Scientific progress has nothing to do with the president or the congress.

The wealthier we become the more we can devote resources to the kind of science you seem to want (the one that brings no real benefits short-term). In the meanwhile, private persons and corporations will be conducting science and innovation that actually helps us in our everyday lives.

[Catta]

isnt it alrdy taught in biology class... or atleast on "equal terms" with it...


teach the controversy my ass...

Gravity - controversy: Intelligent stickyness

[Destruktion]

Yes, America will get its act together, it just needs a boost in the right direction.

[mynameisjona]

Related: The Future of U.S. Innovation

I personally think we'll get back on track and realize we're going astray, unfortunately the necessary government involvement will take a few years as US politics is currently centered on the economy. Until then, the massive private sector research abilities should hold us over.

Also, one of the major problems we have is that one of the first things being cut is education. That is the worst thing to cut and that trend needs to be reversed if we are to make progress of any kind.

[GennGreymane]

i love the option with china and the E.U

china is a good answer, the e.u should be doing what the U.S is doing... cutting some costs until later
some cuts are stupid, like police/firedept/education, but nasa was a luxury it hasnt been doing much the past few years. putting people in orbit to do what ever...... not really exploration, other than their non manned missions there was nothing really going on and it does cost a ton of money


imo the U.N should be incharge of space flight, being able to pool a bunch of resources getting good funding ect would work a bit better.

[Luipet]

The States have to create the Aperture Science Laboratories. Those innovations will help!

:P I'm just dreaming... And being crazy...

[CatzDtroll]

Scientific progress has nothing to do with the president or the congress.

The wealthier we become the more we can devote resources to the kind of science you seem to want (the one that brings no real benefits short-term). In the meanwhile, private persons and corporations will be conducting science and innovation that actually helps us in our everyday lives.

Yep, like stem cells. And air. All useless.

[mynameisjona]

i love the option with china and the E.U

china is a good answer, the e.u should be doing what the U.S is doing... cutting some costs until later
some cuts are stupid, like police/firedept/education, but nasa was a luxury it hasnt been doing much the past few years. putting people in orbit to do what ever...... not really exploration, other than their non manned missions there was nothing really going on and it does cost a ton of money

You really think NASA should be the first to go? How about defense costs?

NASA's budget: ~$18 billion (Source)
Want to know what EU is cutting? Defense costs. Why? Cause we (US) maintain such a large military that if anything happens we have more than enough and can help them

[Tunak]

The end of the space shuttle era is a necessary step in the progression of the space program in order for us to bring in new spaceflight technology currently being developed by private enterprises for NASA. If you think we're in any danger of being put out of the space race you're crazy. Look at it this way. Russia's space program budget is ~3 billion dollars, NASA's is 18.3 billion, we still care way more about science than pretty much any other country out there.

[Darkelementz]

Last i checked democrats blocked the continuation of the space shuttle and signed with the russians for trips to and from the ISS..... so...........

But really, shuttle was canceled because it costs a lot of NASA's budget to fire up. I know a few people at NASA who complained about it and said that there will be a period of time where they will reinvent the spaceflight wheel, so to speak, and make a more efficient shuttle system, probably running on fuel cells or rainbows or something.

Scientific end, HA!! That's a good one. The shuttle is 40 year old technology and is essentially an expensive freight train. This doesnt mark the end. When computers go away, THAT might be the end. With 24 core machines, 22nm transistors, quad-core telephones, and the shape of the smartphone and tablet market, technology will thrive in this country for a LONG time. Remember than microsoft and apple and TI and intel and AMD AND google are based out of the US, I think technology is better than ever for the future.

---------- Post added 2011-07-10 at 03:19 PM ----------

The States have to create the Aperture Science Laboratories. Those innovations will help!

We do what we must.... because we can.

[KG422]

If you want to provoke a serious discussion you should probably keep the partisan bs to a minimum as the OP.

I voted for two choices, the one for president & Congress and the one for caring about education.

I look forward to an America where we invest more heavily in science, just as our founding fathers envisioned. These days, too much government wealth is steered towards the poor with social programs supposedly designed to help them make their way to the middle class that actually keep them impoverished while fattening the wallets of bureaucrats. Also, education spending is at a staggering amount, and needs the fat trimmed from its midsection to steer the dollars to the children, and not the Boards of Education. They syphon out ridiculous amounts of money for things they already have, instead of developing new initiatives and programs to help our children learn, and all the while they create a greater burden on our teachers who are funded less and less for their own classrooms.

Unfortunately, the parents seem more concerned about raising pro athletes than scholars, or on the reverse side of the coin they just figure their child isn't destined to go somewhere, anyway, and the sooner they're out of school the sooner they can make money and get somewhere in life. Years of browbeating have resulted in a general push towards higher education, but going to college doesn't mean that the average student is more highly educated.

[Blznsmri]

Options 3 and 4. 40 years ago we put the first man on the moon, what have we done since? If we had kept up with the tech development we'd be on mars by now.

[Scrabblet]

Yep, like stem cells. And air. All useless.

Air is pure evil! 100% of anything that breathes air WILL DIE SOMEDAY!!!

We must nuke the Air. No matter the costs.

[Anthoren]

So i voted seriously on the poll but after reading from the OP I cannot take you seriously because it is people like you that blame republicans for everything that move us farther and farther from the US ever fixing its problems, and sorry to say it is not a republican problem, but a democrat and republican issue that stems so deep into the infrastructure of this country that only when the people of the United States want real change, not Obama change or conservative or any other change...which isn't change at all, will things get fixed. I would've answered this post disregarding politics...but learn to actually learn things.

Everyone forgive me for going all political, I'm just tired of people on both sides blaming each other for everything and never solving the actual issue.

[CatzDtroll]

"And we shall call our effort 'Operation Aero-Freedom'" :P

Seriously though, i'm just hoping for 2012 to not-be-bullshit as far fetched as it seems. The reason? The reason is that for the last few decades we have made like 0 revolutionary scientific discoveries and human kind is more concerned with the development of a 3-speed pink dildo with and mp3 player.

And seriously USA? Your defense budget is above 700 bn while NASA gets 18 bn? Is blowing up some extremists so important? We need more CERNs, like at least 50 more labs/communities like that. But i guess everyone is too busy playing WoW/being Justin bierebbebre.

[GennGreymane]

You really think NASA should be the first to go? How about defense costs?

NASA's budget: ~$18 billion (Source)
Want to know what EU is cutting? Defense costs. Why? Cause we (US) maintain such a large military that if anything happens we have more than enough and can help them

defense costs are going to be much harder to do. i fully agree that needs to be reduced as well, as much as i hate that nasa got the short end of the stick, it needed to be done like defense costs. Osama is dead im sure a brave politician can reduce defense costs.

[MerinPally]

Your poll options make it sound like the US MUST be leading the way in science, or the world will go to pot.

Let me put it this way - the US has not been the head of everything important at once, it never has, it never will, and no country on the planet will be in that position ever. A lot of high level science takes place in Europe, and CERN do not associate themselves with a country far as I'm aware. The Tevatron does research too.

Just because you cut NASA does not mean that science ends. Also, your logic is so flawed its unreal. You suggest that cutting NASA will mean that creationism is taught in schools as scientific fact. You are clearly not a scientist and I can tell that from reading your post. This thread will turn into a flamewar, let it be known.