"...however, why should the USA modify the system producing among the
best and most successful scientists in the world..."
I would simply like to add a quick clarification. I struggled with how
to respond to this US-centric statement. There is no doubt that the
USA is a scientific powerhouse and I have wonderful things to say
about my experience as a scientist there, which has brought me
wonderful collaborations I hope last long. However I am not sure it is
fair to compare a country of over 300 million inhabitants with another
of 5 (Finland). In fact, I took the liberty do do a quick search in
Web of Science for articles in the area of 'Environmental Sciences and
Ecology' for both countries in the last 5 years. USA showed 204,414 in
front of 8,119 Finnish articles indexed in ISI. If one thinks 'per
capita', the USA has produced 650 indexed articles in ecology per
million inhabitants, while Finland has produced 1,500. With this I do
not mean to say that Finland is better or worse... but just to show
that, when the comparison is done 'fairly', maternity leaves do not
seem to be hampering Finnish ecology. Productivity can be achieved
without equality and social welfare suffering.
Andres Lopez-Sepulcre
Laboratoire d'Ecologie, UMR 7625
Ecole Normale Superieure, Paris
[email protected]
http://web.me.com/asepulcre
On Apr 12, 2012, at 6:52 PM, Amanda Quillen wrote:
"...however, why should the USA modify the system producing among
the best and most successful scientists in the world..."
