Is Core Scientific Research in Decline?

In America's Financial Apocalypse (extended 2006 version), I made the case for a trend of declining basic research from core scientific disciplines such as chemistry and physics.  I also noted Western Europe's surge past the U.S. in patent applications. 

As the chart below illustrates, the U.S. is not increasing R&D expenditures as a percentage of GDP, while Asia continues to pump more and more money into R&D.

Finally, I discussed the continuing trend of declining dollars from Washington to support organizations such as the NSF that provide grants for core research.  As a result, over the years, corporate America has filled this funding gap.  This trend has served to damage core research further. 

On Tuesday, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to three Americans (although two have additional citizenship; Canadian and British) for the development of fiber optics and the charge-coupled device.

Without a doubt these two developments were huge and have catapaulted the telecommunications and the photography industries. Together, they have played a primary role enabling the collection and transmission of digital data.  However...