Politically Correct US Science Struggles to Compete With the Suddenly Wide-Open Science of China

A high tech society requires the human capital which can maintain and advance its scientific and technological infrastructure. A wise society will build on its strengths in order to stay ahead of its competitors. A foolish society will attack and tear down its human resources, in pursuit of a suicidal faux egalitarianism.

From Steve Sailer:

5 on AP Physics C 2008
	Male	Female	Sex Ratio	% of Total
Total	9,017	2,010	4.5	100.0%
White	5,705	1,127	5.1	62.0%
Asian	2,414	708	3.4	28.3%
Other	316	69	4.6	3.5%
Not Stated	199	57	3.5	2.3%
Other Hispanic	177	32	5.5	1.9%
Mexican American	98	7	14.0	1.0%
Black	78	6	13.0	0.8%
Puerto Rican	18	3	6.0	0.2%
American Indian	12	1	12.0	0.1%

More information on AP scores here.

The US is pouring vast resources into the quest to equalize scores on tests such as the AP Physics C. The US spends an extravagant amount of money to try to entice and coerce large numbers of women and non-Asian minorities into advanced math-intensive science and engineering, while neglecting population resources which are better suited for such training. Is the US government spending its resources wisely in the pursuit of this false egalitarianism?

China, on the other hand, appears to be more focused on training a capable high technology workforce to meet the likely crises of the coming century. China is not wasting its resources on political correctness.

... China has jumped to second place -- up from 14th in 1995 -- behind the United States in the number of research articles published in scientific and technical journals worldwide.

Backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Chinese medical researchers, partnering with a firm in the United States, beat out an Indian team last year to develop a new test for cervical cancer that costs less than $5. The goal is to test 10 million Chinese women within three years. ...

Meanwhile, Chinese military researchers appear to be on the cusp of a significant breakthrough: a land-based anti-ship ballistic missile that is causing concern within the U.S. Navy.

In 2007, Chinese geneticists discovered vast differences in the genetic makeup of Africans, Asians and Caucasians. They will soon report a breakthrough showing why some people -- such as Tibetans -- can live effortlessly at high altitudes while others can't.

...The emergence of China as a nascent scientific superpower raises questions about the U.S. relationship with Beijing. Ever since the United States opened the door to Chinese students in the 1970s, hundreds of thousands have flocked to America. Most have studied science or engineering and have been welcomed in research institutions across the land. But with China becoming a competitor, U.S. experts have begun to question that practice.

...Over the past few years, scientists at BGI sequenced the genes of a chicken, a silkworm, a panda, a strain of rice and 4,000-year-old human remains from Greenland.

In January, BGI made the biggest purchase of genome sequencing equipment ever, buying 128 ultra-high-tech machines from California-based Illumina. With that one acquisition, BGI could very well surpass the entire gene-sequencing output of the United States.

Inside the 11-story facility, the vibe is pure Silicon Valley start-up: shorts, flip-flops, ankle bracelets, designer eyewear and a random tattoo. Zhao came to BGI on a summer internship last year to work on cucumbers. Now a full-time employee while continuing his studies, Zhao is turning his attention to a topic Western researchers have shied away from because of ethical worries: Zhao plans to study the genes of 1,000 of his best-performing classmates at a top high school in Beijing and compare them, he said, "with 1,000 normal kids." _SteveSailer (quoting WaPo)

From GNXP: interesting looks at the innateness of sexual orientation, sociopathy, and the "missing heritability" of complex traits such as intelligence.