US Nobel-men underline power of the American dream

US Nobel-men underline power of the American dream

WASHINGTON: The almighty dollar and the"American dream" have helped ensure that the US has dominated the Nobel prizes in physics, chemistry, medicine and economics for the past 15 years, scientists say.

They say US investment in basic and applied research, along with a competitive environment that encourages questioning the establishment, have nurtured the researchers awarded the world's most prestigious prize for discovery.

Of the 33 men they are all men awarded the Nobel prize for chemistry since 1985, 20 are Americans or did most of their work in the United States.

Twenty-three of those winning in physiology or medicine were US-based and 15 of the 22 economics winners were. In physics, 23 of 37 winners had US citizenship or residency.

"Is it because Americans are smarter? Probably not, "Phillip Schewe of the American Institute of Physics said in a telephone interview.

"In general, I think it's because there is a lot of money rolling around."The US has billions of dollars pouring intobasic research from both public and private sources. Federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health and National Science Foundation support research, as do non-profit groups such as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Alan Guttmacher Institute and the National Academy of Sciences.

Corporate-backed programmes such as Bell Laboratories devote billions more to research.

The money goes to the most deserving, said Dr. Rita Colwell, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

"We fund the best and the brightest based on merit, and that, I think, is a very powerful driver," Colwell said in a telephone interview. She said there was somewhat of an "entitlement approach" in many other countries.

The NSF funded 78 US winners before they got their Nobels, including four of the 2000 crop chemistry awardees Alan Heeger of the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) and New Zealand-born Alan MacDiarmid of the University of Pennsylvania, Paul Greengard of New York's Rockefeller University, who shared the prize in medicine and German-born Herbert Kroemer of UCSB, who split the physics prize.

The researchers, whose findings contributed to the computer revolution, a better understanding of brain diseases and advances in plastics research, all were encouraged to think outside the box, Colwell said. "An important factor is rewarding creativity and challenging assumptions," she said.

"It will always be questioning and moving to the next step of the frontier, whereas in many countries, there is a tendency to be traditional, not to rock boats and to be deferential to your seniors. I would say American scientists are not particularly deferential to old-fashioned ideas."