Word: nobels
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Indeed, at a time when the U.S. is beset with economic woes, an energy crisis, weak leadership and growing self-doubt, Americans can take unalloyed pride in the honors that have been bestowed on its men and women of science. Since 1946, 100 U.S. citizens have won Nobels in the sciences, more than half of the to tal number awarded and far more than America's nearest rivals: Britain, with 34; Germany, 13; the Soviet Union, 8; and France, 5. The record is nearly as impressive in what Thomas Carlyle called the "dismal science." Since the establishment...
Paradoxically, America's lack of longstanding intellectual traditions-in fact, its strain of anti-intellectualism-may also have helped the cause of science. The best minds have not been overburdened with required studies that are remote from their interests. Sir George Porter, a British chemist who won a Nobel in 1967, recalls that he had to put up a stiff fight to be allowed to study science instead of Latin or Greek at his grammar school in England. "Very few Americans speak ancient languages," he says.-"But for 150 years there has been a tradition in America of appreciation...
...does all this differ from the nurturing of scientists in other advanced nations? Britain has a long tradition of scientific achievement and freedom-and, on a per capita basis, has scored well in the Nobel competition. But it could probably better its scientific output by making its educational system less rigid...
...humane, not 'with it.' " To his credit, President Carter, trained as an engineer, now seems to be fighting this trend and pushing for more funding for basic research. But many scientists doubt that this new generosity will be enough. Chemist Philip Abelson, editor of Science, notes that Nobel prizes are usually awarded long after the work they honor has been performed. "Don't misunderstand," he says. "The U.S. has hardly fallen out of the tree. But stick around ten years to see the results of our current domestic attitudes." Thus the 1979 Nobels are really the harvest...
Last week Mother Teresa of Calcutta, 69, was awarded the 1979 Nobel Prize for Peace...