Sputnik 1; image courtesy of NASA
An item in the current issue of Science reveals a significant error in Rising Above the Gathering Storm, an influential National Academies report that argued for more federal investment in science. The executive summary for the latest edition of the 2005 report states:
There were almost twice as many US physics bachelor’s degrees awarded in 1956, the last graduating class before Sputnik, than in 2004.
That figure, which a footnote attributes to Digest of Education Statistics 2004, is "dead wrong," Science says:
In reality, U.S. colleges and universities awarded 72% more undergraduate physics degrees in 2004 than in 1956--4965 versus 2883. Sliced another way, degree production has risen by 40% since hitting a post-Sputnik low in 1998 and is approaching levels not seen since the late 1960s, when a series of large graduating classes triggered a serious job crunch.
This is not the first error that's cropped up in the report; according to the article, its first edition also exaggerated how many engineers graduate from schools in China and India, an error that has since been corrected. The article goes on to say that Academy officials don't know how the error occurred.
