Reference News Network, October 15 report: The UK's The Economist website published an article titled "Which Countries Produce Nobel Laureates and Which Import Them?" on October 9. Excerpts are as follows:

The Nobel Prizes in the natural sciences for this year have been announced. Among the nine laureates who will travel to Stockholm in December to receive their awards, six made their research breakthroughs in the United States. They include one British person, one French person, and one Jordanian. In fact, about half of this year's laureates conducted their research in countries other than where they were born. Science has always been an international endeavor, but the proportion of immigrant top researchers is higher than ever before.

According to data collected by Max von Zedtwitz from the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland and his colleagues from the European Business School in Germany, approximately 30% of Nobel laureates had already moved to another country before making their major discoveries since the first awards in 1901. This proportion declined during the interwar period due to slower movement of people, but it has risen again in recent decades. From the 1990s to the early 21st century, the number of Nobel laureates born in the United States and conducting research there increased. Since then, the proportion of foreign-born scientists among laureates has continued to grow.

Poland has been the biggest loser in this migration of scientific talent: there are 19 Nobel laureates born in what is now Poland (including Marie Curie), but none of them won the prize for research conducted in the country. The United States, on the other hand, has been the main beneficiary. Research conducted on American soil has won 304 Nobel Prizes in science — far more than any other country. However, only about 70% of these awards have gone to scientists born in the United States, and only eight Americans have won for research done abroad. Stricter immigration regulations and cuts in research funding may slow down this global flow of talent.

Apart from being a large country, the United States' leading position is also due to its ability to attract talent. When calculated by the ratio of laureates to population, European countries such as the UK, Denmark, Sweden, and Switzerland lead the United States. After adjusting for population size, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, and Norway also lead the United States.

The Nobel Prizes are often awarded decades after the research results, rather than recognizing contemporary breakthroughs. The macroscopic quantum tunneling experiment that won this year's Physics Prize was completed in the mid-1980s. This delay helps explain why over four-fifths of the winning discoveries come from five scientific powerhouses: the United States, the UK, France, Germany, and Switzerland.

As science becomes increasingly global and other countries attract more talent, the United States' dominance is destined to gradually decline. (Translated by Wenyi)

Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7561391450374554127/

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