THE UNITED STATES: LAGGING IN PHYSICS. What’s worse, this isn’t just about falling behind in the race for the biggest, baddest accelerators, a race that I’m not convinced is as important as portrayed. This is about far more serious systemic problems. Excerpt:

The net result is that the academic community is now devoting far more of its time to writing grants, a shift that has come at the expense of directing and publishing research. In the past, academics have had an escape route from the pressures to retain funding: the “blue sky” research labs run by major companies, such as AT&T’s Bell Labs. But the report refers to these institutions as “once great,” since recent years have seen them closed, sold off piecemeal, or refocused on product development.

Combined, these changes have caused US research output to shrink in comparison to the rest of the world. Based on publications in Physical Reviews B and E, the US contribution to papers has remained flat over the last decade, while papers originating from other countries have nearly doubled. The report predicts that this reduced output will ultimately exact a price on the American economy.

It’s not all bad, of course, that other countries are producing more. But this is a real problem, not merely a demand for more cash.