The Wealth of Nations

Hot off the press (or more accurately, the screen, in this brave new pixelated world of ours): A report by the Royal Society on the scientific wealth of nations. It documents the continued dominance of the world's scientific superpowers like the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan, and the rapid emergence of new scientific powers like China, Singapore and Brazil. In 2007, Sub-Saharan African countries spent an average of just 0.5% of their GDP on research and development. The corresponding 2007 statistics for China, Singapore and Brazil were 1.44%, 2.61% and 1.4%. And rising...