US Can't Meet The "Grand Challenges" of Physics

BlueSky writes "A new report paints a troubling picture of the state of physics research in the US, which the authors believe has dire consequences for the competitiveness of the US. 'The report identifies six key questions that will represent the grand challenges that materials science will face over the coming decade, the ones most likely to produce the next revolution. But it also raises fears that those challenges will be met by researchers outside of the US. It highlights the fact that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research at the same time that the corporate-funded research lab system has collapsed. As a result, US scientific productivity has stagnated at a time when funding and output are booming overseas.'"

Re:Intelligent Design Advocates

[Anonymous Coward]

No, no, you must have faith. The problem is the people who don't have faith. They ruin it for everybody by writing those stories. If everybody had faith instead, then nobody would be talking about those problems, and so it wouldn't be a problem for anybody with faith, which would be everybody. Ergo: have faith and be happy, the good lord will provide.

Plenty of money for research...

[drgonzo59]

...that government funding has not kept up with the rising costs of research

Huh? What do they mean? There is plenty of money in research, one just has to find a way to make it sound like 'research' will eventually kill more Iraqis, then 'research' will get plenty of money. Let's look at some examples:

1. Nanotech : By building tiny small robots we can kill Iraqis and they wouldn't even see us coming! == Cha-ching $1bn of funding over the next 10 years.

2. Particle Physics: By finding the Higgs boson we could kill Iraqis over great distances. The Higgs boson will create a micro singularity in Iraq and suck in all the Iraqis and leave us all the oil we want. When we burn it all, the Higgs boson will be equally effective against Iranians! == Cha-ching $2bn for a new particle accelerator.

Gosh!... didn't academia teach these physicists anything ...?

The New White House Memorandum

[drgonzo59]

From now on, no nuclear research will be conducted, we will focus our attention on nucular research only. Anyone caught doing nuclear research will be considered a terrorist.

Its nothing to ashamed of

[Timesprout]

When Physics challenged me to a thumb wrestling deathmatch I ran away and hid under my desk before it could give me a wedgie.

Re:What?

[Rumagent]

Certainly not! This is evidence that current IP laws are too lax! To ensure final victory we must protect valuable [uspto.gov] research [gnu.org]. Only hardcore pinko communists and certain factions in Iran would disagree!

Re:Intelligent Design Advocates

[Anonymous Coward]

The war on terror DOES help research. Because you have to borrow money from China, they become richer and can finance their own research projects.

No worries

[MemoryDragon]

The USA has an army of laywers which will sue god for not adhering to intellectual property laws and to patent laws.
So no worries, if somebody outside of the USA will make research progress god will be sued... :-)

Christians don't need Scientists

[Anonymous Coward]

But everything we need to know is in the Bible, so why fund so called 'Scientists' to come up with the wrong answers to things we already know?

Think of all that money wasted on 'The Big Bang' for instance. The Bible gives us the truth about creation, so what is the point of paying athiests to make things up?

The money should be instead given to Israel to facilitate the ingathering and hasten the End Times. They are nearly up us, my Cat was raptured just last week!