The Future of Open-Source Hardware and Science - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 258

FIGURE 7.2 Upgraded 3-D printable open-source microscope to digital microscope with a
printed component and a smartphone.
7.2 The Impact on the Scientific Brain Drain/Gain
This advancement in the scientific tool arena has the potential to bring more people into the
experimental and applied sciences. These people will come from what could be a reigniting
of interests in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields here in the
United States and the rest of the west, but also a complete rearrangement of the migration
routes of scientists from the developing world. Consider the current situation. I have taught at
four universities in both the United States and Canada in a wide range of disciplines covering
physics, materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science and electrical engineer-
ing—and in all of them, the vast majority of the graduate students were from other countries.
The institutions I have worked for are not particularly abnormal. For example, in 2006, the
National Science Foundation reported that foreign students earned approximately 36% of the
doctorate degrees in sciences and approximately 64% of the doctorate degrees in engineering
[ 1 , 2 ] . Of these international students earning higher degrees in the sciences, about half of them
stay in the United States, but this varies widely depending on the field and discipline (also the
year and country) [ 3 - 5 ] : 64% for physical sciences, 63% for life sciences, 57% for mathematics,
63% for computer sciences, but only 38% in agricultural sciences. For some countries like Ch-
ina and India, the so-called stay rates can be substantially greater (88-92% on the high end).
Obviously, having many of your best and brightest students come to the United States and
stay here can have a large negative impact on the home countries [ 3 - 5 ] . On the other side of