European Renaissance

The other day I came across this interesting (though poorly written) look at European Science. I also found another article that takes more of an economic-/incentive-based look at the matter.

I'm naturally thrilled that the European research market is flourishing, and much activity (particularly with nanoengineering) on campus here in Lund supports the suggestions above. If this is in fact a trend, I'm curious to see how the US will react. The 3 billion dollar California biotech bill is a sizable carrot for sure, but the political obstacles in the articles above describe an expansive shark-infested moat between potential researchers and that funding. Consequently the California bill is probably going to focus it's brain-draining on the rest of the United States research pool. Well, beyond wild speculation, we're just going to have to wait and see.