White House plan for a ‘golden age’ of science ignores the structures that made the US a scientific superpower

Does the White House report Science: A New Golden Age signal twilight for US global scientific leadership? Charles Smith/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images A new White House report argues that eight decades of science policy that helped make the United States the world’s scientific leader is too bureaucratic, too focused on institutions rather than individual researchers, and too slow to translate discoveries into economic and technological advantages. Supporters see it as a needed modernization of…