China's scientific output

[we vs us]

China 'to overtake US on science' in two years

China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 - far earlier than expected.

That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy.

An analysis of published research - one of the key measures of scientific effort - reveals an "especially striking" rise by Chinese science.
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"Start Quote

    There are many millions of graduates but they are mandated to publish so the numbers are high"

End Quote Dr Cong Cao Nottingham University

The study, Knowledge, Networks and Nations, charts the challenge to the traditional dominance of the United States, Europe and Japan.

The figures are based on the papers published in recognised international journals listed by the Scopus service of the publishers Elsevier.

In 1996, the first year of the analysis, the US published 292,513 papers - more than 10 times China's 25,474.

By 2008, the US total had increased very slightly to 316,317 while China's had surged more than seven-fold to 184,080.

Previous estimates for the rate of expansion of Chinese science had suggested that China might overtake the US sometime after 2020.

Granted, publishing scientific papers isn't a perfect indicator of scientific dominance, but it IS a strong indicator of scientific output and participation in the global knowledge community.

Per the article, a lot of it can be attributed to a national investment in the sciences:  "Chinese spending has grown by 20% per year since 1999, now reaching over $100bn, and as many as 1.5 million science and engineering students graduated from Chinese universities in 2006."

It's fascinating, really.  China is using billions and billions of what used to be our money to lift their entire society out of agrarian poverty and into the 21st century.   The scale and speed of the project has to be unprecedented in human history.  The wealth transfer has to be unprecedented, as well.

Such a damn shame that they've decided that we're their sole source of funding. 

[Gaspar]

And there's this . . .

[Breadburner]

"Head Coach Mike Gundy says'....3/4 of that article is in-ackkurate"....!!!!!