Okay, as promised--here are the growth rates and doubling periods for the subcategory disciplines for U.S. federal funding. They are taken from this spreadsheet: Download us_funding_for_research3.xls, which is found here on the NSF website, where it is labeled Table 1A.
There's a real shocker below (to me, anyways). I put the charts up twice--once using the straight figures given by the NSF, and again after adjusting for inflation.
If anyone wants to know why the U.S. research output has declined, look at the second one. In 14 of the 26 disciplines measured, inflation-adjusted growth is negative. Only two categories show growth that is not embarrassing--computer sciences and 'other medical.'
Elsewhere we have seen that the number of the student-age population has declined (although higher proportions are enrolling). We have heard that our proportion of the contribution to the increase of knowledge is bound to decline, given the growing contribution from other countries such as China.
It's all bull. The U.S.A. defunded research. Click to see the numbers. Read 'em and weep.
Okay, let's see if I can work on my presentation skills, learning from my feeble efforts in previous posts. I wish I could make the columns look even...
Figures given are in thousands of U.S. dollars--no adjustment for inflation is shown. (damn, that's another post I'll have to do...) So the first figure shown, for the starting figure for Biology and Agriculture, is 865 million, 630 thousand U.S. dollars, not adjusted for inflation. This chart looks kind of cute. But it's all bull. Compare with the second chart below.
Discipline Dates Covered Starting Ending CAGR Doubling period (yrs)
Bio & Agric 1970-2001 865,630 14,116,442 9.12% 7.94
Env. Bio 1978-2001 184,873 728,802 5.88% 12.13
Clinical Medical 1970-1977 374,252 634,377 6.82% 10.51
Other Medical 1970-1977 168,543 504,383 14.68% 5.06
Psych, Bio. aspects 1970-2001 32,345 13,639 <2.66%> --
Psych. Soc. aspects 1970-2001 53,460 59,799 0.35% 138.98
Astronomy 1970-2001 136,455 759,195 5.51% 12.92
Chemistry 1970-2001 227,536 1,024,918 4.82% 14.72
Physics 1970-2001 554,570 2,461,747 4.77% 14.88
Atmosphe sci 1970-2001 232,780 1,113,559 5.01% 14.18
Geologic sci 1970-2001 152,809 673,782 4.75% 14.94
Oceanography 1970-2001 79,752 681,084 6.93% 10.34
Mathematics 1976-2001 69,871 396,381 6.90% 10.39
Computer sci 1976-2001 73,583 2,022,782 13.59% 5.44
Aeronautic eng 1970-2001 335,960 2,430,055 6.38% 11.21
Astronautic eng 1970-2001 177,791 752,732 4.61% 15.38
Chemical eng 1970-2001 109,448 199,036 1.89% 37.02
Civil eng 1970-2001 71,099 288,422 4.47% 15.85
Elec eng 1970-2001 283,505 889,720 3.64% 19.39
Mech eng 1970-2001 178,337 319,249 1.84% 38.02
Metal &mat eng 1970-2001 136,467 1,080,822 6.68% 10.72
Anthropology 1970-2001 8,642 15,606 1.86% 37.61
Economics 1970-2001 77,707 234,064 3.51% 20.09
Political sci 1970-2001 7,827 19,518 2.90% 24.25
Sociology 1970-2001 37,803 95,471 2.94% 23.92
Other 1970-2003 75,050 1,592,634 9.40% 7.72
Oh.... darn. I just found an inflation calculator for the U.S. So, here it all is again, adjusted for inflation. Darn. (Here's the link for the equivalent calculator for the U.K.) I will put both links on the list of resources on the right hand side of the blog--but not right now. This is wearing me out.
All figures have been converted to 2006 US dollars. So both sets of figures have been changed...
Discipline Dates Covered Starting Ending CAGR Doubling period (yrs)
Bio & Agric 1970-2001 4,597,891 15,985,048 3.97% 17.80
Env. Bio 1978-2001 593,897 825,274 1.51% 46.25
Clinical Medical 1970-1977 1,987,881 2,170,377 1.10% 63.36
Other Medical 1970-1977 895,235 1,725,632 8.55% 8.45
Psych, Bio. aspects 1970-2001 171,804 15,444 <7.25%> --
Psych. Soc. aspects 1970-2001 283,958 67,714 <4.38%> --
Astronomy 1970-2001 724,796 859,690 0.53% 131.13
Chemistry 1970-2001 1,208,583 1,160,587 <0.13%> --
Physics 1970-2001 2,945,661 2,787,610 <0.17%> --
Atmosphe sci 1970-2001 1,236,437 1,260,961 0.06% 138.98
Geologic sci 1970-2001 811,662 762,971 <0.19%> --
Oceanography 1970-2001 423,611 771,239 1.89% 37.02
Mathematics 1976-2001 252,912 448,850 2.32% 30.22
Computer sci 1976-2001 266,349 2,290,539 8.99% 8.05
Aeronautic eng 1970-2001 1,784,489 2,751,723 1.36% 51.31
Astronautic eng 1970-2001 944,357 852,371 <0.32%> --
Chemical eng 1970-2001 581,345 225,382 <2.92%> --
Civil eng 1970-2001 377,650 326,600 <0.45%> --
Elec eng 1970-2001 1,505,868 1,007,493 <1.25%> --
Mech eng 1970-2001 947,257 361,508 <2.94%> --
Metal &mat eng 1970-2001 724,859 1,223,891 1.65% 42.35
Anthropology 1970-2001 45,902 17,671 <2.94%> --
Economics 1970-2001 412,749 265,047 <1.37%> --
Political sci 1970-2001 41,574 22,101 <1.96%> --
Sociology 1970-2001 200,794 108,108 <1.92%> --
Other 1970-2003 398,636 1,733,448 4.42% 16.03
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