> Swiss nationals have won more than ten times more science Nobels per capita than Italians have. Ten times! And yet they're neighbors, and Italy certainly isn't lacking in scientific tradition -- Fermi, Galileo, the oldest university in Europe, etc. The "how" of science just really matters.
One thing I worry about in the US is homogenization in the way science is done. You won't find all that much difference between how scientists operate in California versus how they operate in Massachusetts or Idaho or anywhere else. There's pretty much the same grant application process, same peer review process, same journals, same conferences. And that would be fine if we knew that we were doing things the Right Way -- but as it is, it just feels like putting all our eggs in one basket.
One thing I worry about in the US is homogenization in the way science is done. You won't find all that much difference between how scientists operate in California versus how they operate in Massachusetts or Idaho or anywhere else. There's pretty much the same grant application process, same peer review process, same journals, same conferences. And that would be fine if we knew that we were doing things the Right Way -- but as it is, it just feels like putting all our eggs in one basket.