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China becomes a physics powerhouse
Posted on Friday, August 01, 2008 @ 23:37:46 UTC by vlad
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Judged by the astonishing increase in journal papers written by
scientists in China, there can be little doubt that China is finding
its place as one of the world's scientific power houses. Michael Banks,
Physics World's News Editor, quantifies this surge in scientific output from China and asks whether quality matches quantity in August's Physics World.
Nanoscience, quantum computing
and high-temperature superconductivity are three of the cutting-edge
areas of physics that have seen particularly large increases. Published
journal articles in nanoscience, for example, with at least one
co-author based in China, have seen a 10-fold increase since the
beginning of the millennium, rising to more than 10,500 in 2007.
China has already overtaken the
UK and Germany in the number of physics papers published and is
beginning to nip at the heels of the United States. If China's output
continues to increase at its current pace, the country will be
publishing more articles in physics - and indeed all of science - than
the US by 2012.
Quantity alone however is not enough. The number of times a journal
paper is cited by other academics in their own journal papers is often
used as a guide to journal papers' quality. Unfortunately for China,
they are currently a long way from the national citation top spot,
ranked in 65th for physics, just ahead of Kuwait, with an average of
4.12 citations for each of the papers published.
As China has only just started to publish large volumes of work, it
is not a fair reflection. Werner Marx, an information scientist from
the Max Planck Institute for Solid State Research in Stuttgart,
Germany, who carried out a bibliometric study for the Physics World
article, said, "The figure is still quite impressive, and I estimate
this will rise substantially in the next few years."
All indications suggest that
China's propensity for world-leading research is growing. In March this
year scientists in Japan first reported a new class of iron-based
superconducting material that can conduct electricity without
resistance when cooled to below 26 Kelvin (K). Researchers in China
quickly picked up the baton and, within a month of the initial Japanese
discovery, had boosted the transition temperature at which the material
loses all its electrical resistance to 52 K.
Werner Marx said, "China has become a notable factor in the
scientific landscape. Usually scientific development in nations does
not show such a strong acceleration as we have seen in China, so it
will be interesting to see how it responds and develops in the future."
Source: Institute of Physics
Via: http://www.physorg.com/news136783319.html
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Re: China becomes a physics powerhouse (Score: 1)
by kurt9 on Saturday, August 02, 2008 @ 09:25:31 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.metatechnica.com | The more, the merrier. The more people around the world who do R&D, the faster everything goes.
You can never be too rich.
You can never be too good looking.
There is no such thing as science and technology progressing "too" fast.
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Re: China becomes a physics powerhouse (Score: 1)
by Veryskeptical on Sunday, August 03, 2008 @ 10:36:16 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | I would like to add my 2 cents too the comment of the previous poster. If China is not cited too often, especially in the U.S., it might be a good thing. Especially if U. S. physicists are embarassed by the the published literature there.
Hopefully ideas which have been discouraged in the U. S. will flourish in China producing an independent center of inquiry. While many scientists may feel cooperation is better than competition I would argue that under some circumstances competition may advance inquiry faster. Especially when prejudice against certain ideas is running high in any particular place.
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Re: China becomes a physics powerhouse (Score: 1)
by ElectroDynaCat on Sunday, August 03, 2008 @ 11:22:56 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | From its early history, China has been a leader in technology and science. Gunpowder and printing are only a few of the innovations to come out of Chinese culture.
The USA, adept at advertising, hype, and lawyers. If we need expertise we'll buy it, and not listen to our own home grown prophets.
It looks like we'll be outsourcing more than the stuff at Wally World.
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