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For more information on these science news and feature story tips, please contact the public information officer at the end of each item at (703) 292-8070. Editor: Cheryl Dybas Contents of this News Tip:
BRAIN DRAIN TO BRAIN SHARING?A long-held notion that foreign-born scientists and engineers (S&E) emigrate to the United States, then stay in a "one-way mobility" of brain power benefiting the U.S. only, appears to be changing somewhat. But this "brain drain"-turned-"brain sharing" may be more dependent upon the capabilities, resources and information access within individual countries than upon any other factor in the increasingly complex global economy. The recent evidence documented in a new National Science Foundation (NSF) Issue Brief indicates that the mobility of highly talented workers is very much a two-way street for countries like South Korea and Japan. Only 11 percent of South Korean S&E doctoral recipients in 1990-91 who were educated in the U.S. stayed to work here, and just 13% of Japanese-born S&E doctoral recipients from the same year group stayed in the U.S. afterward (Finn, 1997). Meanwhile, China and India have the highest numbers of doctoral recipients remaining in the U.S. to work long after completing their education. A previous study (Choi, 1995) also found what appears to be a significant amount of networking between those scientists and engineers who remain in the U.S. and those in their home countries. The issue brief concludes that much more research is needed on the contributions made by foreign doctoral recipients who return to their home countries, to learn more about the benefits gained by their nations of origin and the worldwide diffusion of S&E knowledge. [Bill Noxon] For more information, see: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm. PUBLIC OPINION MIXED ABOUT CLIMATE CHANGEMost Americans believe global climate change is real, damaging, and merits remedial action, according to an NSF-supported public opinion survey on climate change. However, many survey respondents believe that global warming is not a reality and will not have undesirable consequences. The survey was conducted before and after the 1997 Kyoto conference. The resulting report, The Impact of the Fall 1997 Debate About Global Warming on American Public Opinion, is based on the most comprehensive survey to date on the impact of the Kyoto conference on perceptions and attitudes regarding climate change. The lead researcher was Jon A. Krosnick of Ohio State University (OSU) in a study sponsored by Resources for the Future. The survey also found wide support for federal efforts to restrict air pollution; however, after the Kyoto event, respondents expressed less willingness to pay higher utility bills to reduce air pollution. Krosnick specializes in human decision-making about risks. He and his colleagues in OSU's Survey Research Unit asked two separate representative national samples of approximately 700 American adults about their attitudes on global warming. One sample was taken before, and another after, the start of the White House Initiative on Climate Change. The initiative calls for industrialized countries to reduce their total national emissions over the period 2008-2012 to an average of about five percent below 1990 levels. [Lee Herring] For more information, see: http://www.rff.org/misc_docs/osu_short.pdf. HIGH-TECH INDUSTRIES BOOST GLOBAL ECONOMYGlobal economic activity in high-tech industries was fueled by an eight-percent annual growth rate in output from 1992-95, according to a new NSF Issue Brief. Four research-intensive industries have been at the center of this growth in manufacturing since 1980. Manufacturing output by industries that produce aerospace products, computers and office machinery, electronics and communications equipment, and pharmaceuticals has grown at nearly double the rate produced by other industries. The United States is also retaking a significant lead in its share of high-tech markets around the world. Since 1991, the only year in the last 15 when the U.S. did not have a leading share of the high-tech marketplace, the U.S. has regained (through 1995) almost all of the ground lost during the previous decade. By the end of 1995, the U.S.' share of high-tech production was at 32%, almost ten percent higher than that of Japan. The issue brief also noted that China is making significant gains in
recent years. China accounted for less than three percent of world high-tech
production in 1990, but has moved upward quickly to account for nearly
six percent of production by 1995. For more information, see: http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/stats.htm.
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