5.29.2009

The US is ranked first in engineering

ScienceWatch reports that the rankings of the Top 20 Countries in Engineering, as determined by citation counts within Thompson-Reuters-indexed journals, have been released, and at present, the US is ranked number 1. In their words, the ranking lists "the top 20 countries which, as of the latest bimonthly update of Essential Science IndicatorsSM, attracted the highest total citations to their papers published in Thomson Reuters-indexed journals of Engineering over an 11-year period, (1998-December 31, 2008). These countries are of a pool of 96 countries comprising the top 50% ranked by total citation count in this field."

The full list:
1 USA
2 JAPAN
3 GERMANY
4 ENGLAND
5 PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA
6 FRANCE
7 CANADA
8 ITALY
9 TAIWAN
10 SOUTH KOREA
11 SPAIN
12 AUSTRALIA
13 NETHERLANDS
14 INDIA
15 SWITZERLAND
16 RUSSIA
17 SWEDEN
18 BELGIUM
19 SINGAPORE
20 TURKEY

5.22.2009

News Tidbits

The Good:
  • Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) has launched a free online database of 7,800 chemicals, called Common Chemistry. It is intended mostly for use by the general public, but may be of use to students and researchers at CMU, as well. Here is the press release.
  • NSF is spending stimulus money. From the linked story, "The ARRA funds set aside for new solicitations will be divided equally between facility updgrades and lab instrumentation purchases. NSF will invest $200 million to fund repairs and renovations to existing academic research facilities. Projects will be awarded up to $10 million each and can include research spaces such as buildings, mobile research facilities, and virtual facilities that use broadband-based technologies to bring scientists together. The other $200 million will fund the purchase and development of shared-use instruments. Up to $6 million each will go to individual projects."
The Bad:The Incredibly Beautiful: