In January of 2004, the National Science Board issued a warning and a challenge. The warning concerned disturbing workforce trends that, if left unchecked, seriously threatened to erode America's technological base. The challenge focused on Americas scientific, engineering and technical communities. NSB wanted to know what action, if any, we were prepared to take to help reverse that trend. "America's engine of growth," NSB's report said, "is fueled by our brightest engineers, scientists and advanced-degree technologists, a mere 5 percent of America's 132-mil-lion-person workforce.... In the last 50 years, more than half of America's sustained economic growth has come from this fantastic five percent." But now, NSB said, our "fuel supply" appeared to be running low.
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