

Which country has the best brains? - mayutana
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11500373

======
kia
Measuring brains by number of Nobel prize winners is a bad idea. Modern
science is heavily dependent on funding and scientists from developed
countries have more opportunities here.

As an example take this year's winners in physics. One of them is British
citizen and one has a citizenship of Netherlands. An interesting fact is that
both of them were born (an made their first steps in science) in Russia. Are
these brains Russian or British/Dutch?

~~~
ronnier
I find it interesting that the worlds 2nd and 3rd largest economies, one of
which has the worlds largest population, aren't even on the list.

~~~
Tichy
They probably have their own equivalent to the Nobel prize.

------
gjm11
Nobels _per million people_ (population figures from putting "population of X"
into Google):

US 1.05; UK 1.91; Germany 1.25; France: 0.91; Sweden 3.04

The ordering is very different from the BBC's (12345 -> 52314). I wouldn't be
at all surprised to find that you get quite a different top 5 this way too.

~~~
limist
Thanks, my immediate reaction to the article was that data normalization was
not done. Now with normalized numbers, how 'bout that Swedish nepotism? :)

------
theprodigy
What sets America apart is we welcome innovative thinking and fund it more
than any other country.

We have private and public institutions that put down the momey for these
people.

This creates organic innovation, but also attracts the best minds to our
country, who later turn into citizens.

------
khookie
I don't think the peace prize should be counted if one is writing on countries
with the "best brains". My understanding is that people who win the peace
prize are usually ones fighting an oppressive regime, which is commendable,
but not a huge intellectual feat.

~~~
mayutana
On the contrary, it is quite an intellectual feat to lead a large group of
people against a powerful oppressive regime. It gets quite difficult as the
organization grows and everyone has their own agenda.

------
fondue
I'm disappointed this wasn't some tongue-in-cheek zombie guide.

------
dazzawazza
Given the US/UK's current economic predicament it hurts that they are
first/second on economic 'bels.

~~~
rdl
If we could get the smart people (physics, etc. graduates) from financial-
masturbatory zero-sum games on wall street back to productive scientific and
engineering enterprises, I'd feel a lot better about things.

------
zyang
that was one confusing chart

