NoNameProf

CNN reported that NASA administrator indicated China will beat US in going (again) to the moon. It certainly caused a stir, and I like it.

Sometimes it is necessary to create artificial force to move science forward, otherwise people can always argue why the money should not be instead spend on more mundane task, such as paving a highway. Once you make it a national pride (or more), then an average voter will be happy to live with potholes in order to beat the other guy (regardless it’s China, Russia, Europe, etc) in the competition. At the end of the day, it is good for the advancement of science and society. As long as nobody gets hurt and it’s a friendly competition, I think have more parties going for the same target certainly help. Same thing can be said, for example, in biological and medical research. In many cases, two or three labs are trying to beat each other to be the first one to find an answer to an important problem. This is the type of competition that keeps people up all night working in the lab. It’s bad for the health of the bench scientists, but it is certainly good for the science!