Hope for US Science

Recently, I read an argument supporting the superiority of United States' science education over that of Western European countries; specifically it was argued that there is more "hope" for science in the US than in some other Western European countries, such as France. The argument went on to suggest that if we use statistics and not "emotional impressions" we will see that by looking at the number of Nobel Prize winners in science from the US as compared to that of France that the truth will be apparent in the numbers. The argument went on to list the 76 Nobel Prize winners from the US and the mere 33 Nobel Prize winners in science from France. This information can be found on Wikipedia here and I assume it to be true.

However, since they got me thinking about statistics, I thought...

I find these numbers interesting considering France's population (61+ million) is roughly one-fifth that of the United States (300+ million). Given this, if France were merely on par with the US, and not below it scientifically, using the Nobel prize winner measurement, I would expect France to have approximately 15 Nobel Prize winners in science over the same number of years. Instead, they have more than double this. So, in a way, these statistics used to show that the US is better than France scientifically actually show just the opposite. By these stats, France is twice as good at churning out Nobel Laureates in science than the US.

I am actually surprised by these stats. My emotional impression would suggest that the US kicks most countries' butts in this Nobel Prize measurement. I guess I should use statistics and not my emotional impression. Hmmmm.

However, by these other statistics which show Nobel prizes by country, per capita, the US still beats France by 2 rankings (Yea America!). The link above shows that the US ranks #11 behind these 10 Western European countries:

1. Iceland
2. Sweden
3. Switzerland
4. Denmark
5. Norway
6. United Kingdom
7. Austria
8. Ireland
9. Germany
10. Netherlands

Maybe it's something in the water over there.

Still looking for Hope,
Harry