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technology and the implications of both for diplomacy are scarcely 

 touched upon. 



Nevertheless, there is some involvement with what might be called 

 the "high technology of scientific research," viz., high-energy physics 

 research ^vith its large accelerators, storage rings, and liquid hydrogen 

 bubble chambers; large radiotelescope arraj^s; deep seabottom drilling 

 rigs; and large-capacity digital computers. 



Much of scientific research carried on by the visiting scientists who 

 are the subject of this study requires no elaborate and costly apparatus 

 (one measure of "high technology"). Yet some of this research might 

 still be regarded as being in the "high technology" area in the sense that 

 it is linked to such science-intensive applications as the laser and other 

 quantum effects, advanced electronics sj^stems, high-temperature 

 alloys for high-performance gas turbine engines, and radiation-resistant 

 materials for atomic energy systems. (Probably the most extensively 

 used piece of scientific equipment in the very "high-technology" Man- 

 hattan Project was the blackboard.) 



Neglect of science explicitly related to low technology, on the otlier 

 hand, appears to be a characteristic of the entire U.S. program of 

 supporting U.S. scientists doing research abroad. Many foreign coun- 

 tries carry on larger programs in such low technologies as wood, glass, 

 plastics, simple composites, railroad transportation, shipbuilding, and 

 the like. At a guess, there may well be more visiting U.S. scientists at 

 the CERN center for research in subatomic particles than in all of these 

 more mundane research facilities put together. And it should be noted 

 that the primary means of international technology transfer is by the 

 movement and intercourse of knowledgeable people. 



ISSUE five: brain drain 



A distinction between this study and Issue Four (U.S. Scientists 

 Abroad) is that the focus is shifted to foreign scientists and tech- 

 nologists in the United States. Also, the movement described in 

 Issue Four is temporary and that in Issue Five likely to be permanent. 

 And finally, the gain is more one-sided: the "brains" are drained ex- 

 tensively from countries that need them and yet do not necessarily 

 benefit the United States where the competition among resident 

 "brains" is considerable. In short, the gain to the United States of 

 the migration to this country of scientists and technologists from 

 abroad does not appear commensurate overall with the loss- to the 

 donor countries. 



The study did not distinguish explicitly between high and low 

 technology. Historically, and in the broadest sense, the international 

 brain drain has involved a wide range of talent and expertise, from 

 that of the semiskilled Greek or Turkish worker in an industrial 

 plant in Germany to that of the physicist who has made his wa_y from 

 the underdeveloped country of his birth into the Western intellectual 

 community. The emphasis in this study, however, is on the most 

 talented and highly trained scientists and technologists, the innova- 

 tors; hence, on high more than on low technology. The appeal of 

 the United States for persons with high-technology qualifications 

 is strong because, as Dr. Whelan puts it, 



The United States is a "center of excellence," a term used by students of 

 brain drain to define ideal conditions for scientific development. All components 

 of these conditions that are lacking in the LDCs and often wanting in many 



