With layoffs rampant, holding on to workers ought to be the least of a company's worries -- unless those employees are scientists and engineers. According to the National Science Foundation, nearly 40% of these skilled workers in the U.S. are more than 50 years old, and the pipeline of talent to replace them is shrinking. IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates predicts a 7% to 11% shortage of experienced engineers in 2011. America is not alone; industrial powerhouses Germany and Japan face similar demographic challenges.
It sounds like something from the movie "Twister" -- teams of scientists in vans, armed with high-tech measuring equipment, barreling across the Oklahoma plains in search of tornadoes.
A team of scientists will use a World War II-era plane to explore one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, in hopes of learning more about climate change.
Can a plague of beetles change the weather? That's one question researchers hope to answer in a four-year research program in Western forests that are being infested by pine mountain beetles, leading to the deaths of great swathes of trees
Sniffer dogs have long been a useful tool in the search for hidden drugs and explosives, but the future looks bleak for man's best friend as scientists seek to develop a new ultra-sensitive electronic nose device.
Though many adults imagine the frightening Grand Theft Auto when they think of video games, kids appear to be subtler thinkers on the subject. Not only do many of them intuitively realize that games can embody any values and be on any subject, many want to make games themselves.
Nearly two years after a flap in which veterans' personal information was put at risk of identity theft, the feds are still not doing all they can to prevent further lapses
With layoffs rampant, holding on to workers ought to be the least of a company's worries -- unless those employees are scientists and engineers. According to the National Science Foundation, nearly 40% of these skilled workers in the U.S. are more than 50 years old, and the pipeline of talent to replace them is shrinking. IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates predicts a 7% to 11% shortage of experienced engineers in 2011. America is not alone; industrial powerhouses Germany and Japan face similar demographic challenges.
It sounds like something from the movie "Twister" -- teams of scientists in vans, armed with high-tech measuring equipment, barreling across the Oklahoma plains in search of tornadoes.
A team of scientists will use a World War II-era plane to explore one of the last uncharted regions of Earth, in hopes of learning more about climate change.
Can a plague of beetles change the weather? That's one question researchers hope to answer in a four-year research program in Western forests that are being infested by pine mountain beetles, leading to the deaths of great swathes of trees
Sniffer dogs have long been a useful tool in the search for hidden drugs and explosives, but the future looks bleak for man's best friend as scientists seek to develop a new ultra-sensitive electronic nose device.
Though many adults imagine the frightening Grand Theft Auto when they think of video games, kids appear to be subtler thinkers on the subject. Not only do many of them intuitively realize that games can embody any values and be on any subject, many want to make games themselves.
Nearly two years after a flap in which veterans' personal information was put at risk of identity theft, the feds are still not doing all they can to prevent further lapses
Cornell University chemists are looking for ways to take the petroleum out of plastics. And nature has provided one green alternative, in the form of oranges.
Startled astronomers peered through an apparent crack in the expanding bubble from an exploded star to glimpse what may be the youngest black hole ever detected.
Next time Earth's magnetic field flips, compass needles will point South instead of North. But scientists can't say when it will occur, and until now they've disagreed on how long the transitions take.
From his first day in office, small business owners have kept a watchful eye on President George W. Bush, looking for any sign that he'd do what few Commanders-in-Chief have done before: champion t...
It shouldn't have bothered me when Iridium, the satellite-telephone company, filed for Chapter 11 protection. I have no current plans to visit the Gobi Desert, and my GSM phone works everyplace but...
"As we prepare for Y2K," writes Eric Utne, in a recent supplement to his touchy-feely Utne Reader, "something surprising and unexpected and quite wonderful is going to happen. We're going to get to...
Starting later this year, you may notice some strange-looking names on the Web. Maybe you'll visit a site that ends with .firm or .store instead of .com, or perhaps you will write an E-mail to joe....
THE FUTURE of information technology descends upon us in a swarm of buzzwords: global village, electronic superhighway, information age, electronic frontier. Someday soon, cyberspace -- the vast, i...
Hooking into a network isn't cheap: Classrooms rarely have the necessary computers, modems, or even telephone lines, not to mention cash to cover phone bills and network connection fees. Add to tha...
Call it Bill Clinton's incredible dwindling investment agenda. During the campaign he called for $220 billion in new spending and tax breaks over four years to shift the economy into higher gear. I...
When Vice President Al Gore discusses one of his favorite subjects, the so- called electronic superhighway, he calls up images of a country connected by computer terminals. The backbone of such a s...
IS AMERICA investing enough in research and development, a cornerstone of future economic success? Total U.S. outlays for government and civilian R&D peaked at $157 billion in 1989 and have since s...
NATIONAL TECHNICAL INFORMATION SERVICE 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Va. 22161 (703) 487-4650 This agency of the Department of Commerce provides on-line, microfiche, and printed directories, a...
Everyone knows that leveraged buyouts clobber research and development. Right? You've heard the argument. To bolster all-important cash flow, managers choke off discretionary spending like R&D. Say...
Bored with Amazon rain forests, Indonesian temples, and the Great Barrier Reef? Jaded travelers, take heart: Antarctica awaits. It's among the most chic destinations because getting there is expens...
Simon Ramo -- the Ramo in Bunker-Ramo, a computer venture, and the ''R'' in TRW, the giant defense electronics company -- has advised Presidents and served on the boards of corporations and univers...
SCIENCE BESPEAKS power, both military and economic. The U.S. has long had the most productive scientific establishment in the world: Since the explosion of the first atomic bomb in the New Mexico d...
JAPAN MAY BE ABLE to bring it off, but U.S. Inc. would flop. A high-tech juggernaut under centralized command would conquer nothing but itself. That doesn't mean a little cooperation wouldn't help....
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