\doc\web\99\13\japnnobl.txt Date sent: Sat, 28 Aug 1999 17:44:07 -0400 From: "Gregory M. Cochran" <74771.3230@compuserve.com> To: Henry Harpending Copies to: "Gregory M. Cochran" <74771.3230@compuserve.com>, "[unknown]" Subject: [h-bd] North Asian Creativity Message text written by Henry Harpending > I think Cochran might be on an interesting track but I think he is wrong in specifics.< I was talking about science and innovation as a whole, and I think my claim stands up pretty well.. We could take Nobel prizes as a crude measure of scientific innovation, of course not considering peace or literature prizes. That leaves physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics Residents of Japan have won 5 total Nobel prizes, 4 in physics, one in chemistry, the last in 1981. A Japanese expatriate, Tonegawa, won the prize for medicine in 1987. I will compare this record with the number of prizewinners resident at various universities when they received their prize. In some cases the actual prize-winnning work was done elsewhere, and remember that up to three individuals can share a prize. In case of duplicate entries, the prize goes to the one postmarked first. In no particular order: Cambridge 56 Oxford 9 Harvard 25 Stanford 16 Berkeley 10 Cal Tech 16 MIT 12 University of Chicago 13 Cornell 7 Princeton 10 Yale 5 Rockefeller University 12 We might wish to consider that Japan has not been prosperous for all that long. As recently as 1965, their per capita GNP was about the same as Brazil's. Surprisingly, most of Japan's really creative science appears to been done before they had any money, under conditions that would seem less than optimal. The level of creativity seems to have peaked during World War II. If you feel that your muse is lying down on the job, maybe a thousand-bomber raid would help. Ian posted an article that said (among other things) that money is quite important. 'At the end of the 20th century the total amount of research that a nation produces is strongly influenced by its wealth.' I suppose so but you have to wonder. An example: Australians have won 6 Nobel prizes twhile people of Japanese descent have also won 6. The Aussies have at least one more in the oven ( Barry Marshall), I wonder what the ratio of science funding was in those two countries over the past 30 years. Ten to one? Twenty to one? Japan's population is about ten times bigger than Australia's. One the effects of Protestantism: I would like to suggest that that scientific productivity is more influenced by eye color. Of course this is probably bullshit, but that doesn't appear to inhibit anyone else, and I'll bet the fit with the actual distribution isn't bad. Gregory Cochran P.S. I admire KImura's work, but I'm talking big picture.. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ How to contribute to H-Bd: 1. To reply privately to just the sender of this message, click the "Reply" button on your email package. 2. To reply publicly to the entire H-Bd list, click the "Reply All" (or equivalent) button on your email package. 3. To start a thread, email your message to h-bd@egroups.com