Abstract
SCIENTIFIC literature in the United States has of vI3 late contained many references to that country's paucity of leading investigators in pure science, as distinct from its applications; and as we have already mentioned (NATURE, May 22,1926, p. 731), the National Academy of Sciences has appointed a special board of trustees to administer a national fund to be raised for supporting research work in that domain. In the June issue of Nation's Business, published by the U.S. Bureau of Commerce, Dr. E. E. Slosson discusses this subject in the latter part of an article entitled “Pure Science Pays its Way.” Examining the nationality of the Nobel prize-winners in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, he finds that out of a total of 72 prize-winners since 1900, Germany can claim 21, British Isles 11, France 10, Holland 6, the United States and Sweden 4 each, Denmark and Switzerland 3 each, Austria, Canada, Italy and Russia 2 each, Belgium and Spain 1 each. A Nobel prize has not yet been awarded outside of Europe and the North American continent. Further, by dividing the number of prize-winners into the number of millions of population, he obtains for each country a number which, he states, may be called “the national index of scientific research”: Denmark, Holland and Switzerland 1, Sweden 1.5, Germany and Austria 3, France and the British Isles 4, Belgium 7, Spain and Italy 20, United States 28, and Russia 66.
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Scientific Achievement and Aptitude. Nature 118, 685–686 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118685a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118685a0