Engineering is the focus of a new bipartisan prize announced today in England. Are the British ahead of the Swedes in talking engineering rather than science ( as the Nobel prize does ) Are the Brits going to be proven to putting the cart before the horse: the product before the scientific research .
Stupidity they think a mere prize will increase interest in science when they don't pay scientists very well at all. Engineers are often a glorius exception because they are more supported by the technotragics ( cf love for a mere physicist)
English and Australian leaders just don't get it . Even innovators and researchers don't benefit ( via the market) from being top in their field .This confused targeting must get some press before it bites the believers in the bum.
Japan and China have become prosperous by concentrating on the application of sciences and letting others do the primary research..
The real question for the West is how can we combine both members of the family of innovation in our economy .
I have a feeling that our leaders don't have the stomach for doing both and because we can't compete in the latter will stall in the stall - whatever they think( their love of all things market means means mental block here ) .
Interestingly this week the Pacific rim leaders have talked free trade . The TT are looking fora new problem needing fixing and they have labelled their new TT problem "tariffs" -
My view is that free trade is a quick fix dream that can easily undermine an ongoing growth in interest in science in Australia and the West generally . Unlike the northern Europeans the southerners clearly believe in a quick fix! - Going broke is a consequence of selling your assets or not really investing in them so they work for you .
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Are you talking Science or Technology , Theory or Practice., Revolution or rebuilding
For over one hundred years now the West has been reminded by its observers that the public often confuse their interest and support for science for the more common support for the results of scientific discovery. With our local high school no longer offering Chemistry at higher school level for the first time in a hundred years . With our leaders celebrating their brilliance in creating educational brilliance in our area I question whether they and the public really know what they are doing.
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