"a world that is still driven largely by American products and American innovations." - it does seem like America is losing the edge though. Cars and mobile are examples of this, Europe and Asia is way ahead of the US.
How are Asia and Europe ahead of America on cars and phones?
Off the top of my head, the iPhone, Google Android, the Tesla Roadster, and Green Freedom are all American.
What really worries me is the LHC (European). I would argue that Newtonian mechanics gave rise to the industrial revolution, that Relativistic Physics gave us the Space Age and Nuclear Age, and that Quantum Mechanics brought the Information Age (I'd be happy to provide details, if you're interested).
I'm worried that America will be playing catchup in whatever new era comes out of the next major physics breakthrough.
I think the US auto bailout adequately explains why Americans are behind in the automotive industry. The Tesla is really more a showcase than a usable vehicle. In many parts of Europe electric cars are quite normal, where I live the local park authority only drives electrical cars.
You have a point with the Iphone and android, but carrierwise the US is way behind both Europe and Asia. Where I live (in Europe) texting has been a mainstream technology for ten years, and most of my friends only have 3g wireless internet. Cabled internet is old school.
Oh, and with the physics you mention: Newton (newtonian mechanics) was English, Einstein (relativity) was German, Niels Bohr was Danish, Heisenberg was German, Erwin Schrodinger was Austrian, Paul Dirac was British, Max Planck was German, and Ludwig Bolzmann was Austrian. (all of them pioneers of quantum mechanics, along with Einstein).
Makes sense about the cars. I'm just happy we're doing cutting edge stuff again that could, hopefully, start to pay off in a few decades.
As for the physics stuff: don't you think that Newton was a reason that the Industrial Revolution took off in England first?
As for the Quantum/Relativistic physicists: they were quite distributed, but I would argue that during the important years (i.e., the few decades immediately following their theoretical breakthroughs), they were more concentrated in the United States than anywhere else. It takes at least a few decades, usually, to find applications (e.g, lasers or transistors) for theory.
> As for the Quantum/Relativistic physicists: they were quite distributed, but I would argue that during the important years (i.e., the few decades immediately following their theoretical breakthroughs), they were more concentrated in the United States than anywhere else.
I agree with the arguments below but wanted to add one point. No one is saying the U.S. is ahead in every single industry. There are clearly areas where other countries lead and quite frankly I wouldn't want it any other way.
