America's "can't-do" attitude

Something that I find interesting is that most of the newspaper articles I read about science are in an Italian newspaper. An example would be my last entry on the seemingly wonderful advance in fuel cell technology and, thus, solar power. I can't find this news in any website for an American newspaper. Instead, I first read it on an Italian newspaper's website.

Look: one of the two top, most prominent headlines on the Washington Post's webpage has to do with Redskins football. One of the five most viewed articles talks about Hannah Montana. CNN and MSNBC have nothing to say on the new catalysts. The New York Times is likewise saying nothing, and the most popular article at the moment is Shorts Crack the Code. "Newspaper of record", indeed.

People complain that we have lost our scientific edge. I've read a lot lately about the US losing its "can-do" attitude. People fret about losing our scientific edge to Europe and/or Japan and/or China.

Here is a wonderful result, and American media has no comment. Judging from the most popular articles on the news sites, readers of these websites aren't even interested in science—after all, there is quite a bit of news, between a breakthrough on adult stem cells and water on Mars.

Perhaps the problem is that no one is paying attention to the science that we are accomplishing. Go, MIT!

(Meanwhile, I will go read David Brooks' latest pontifications. Afterwards, I will turn to my own research, which sadly has not so many implications to revolutionize the world.)