Iran, Tunisia and Turkey are among a number of countries beginning to challenge the dominance of established powerhouses of scientific research, according to a major new report that has identified rapidly emerging nations “not traditionally associated with a strong science base”.
Although traditional ‘scientific superpowers’ still lead the field, a report released last week by Britain’s Royal Society – roughly equivalent to the country’s Academy of Sciences – looked beyond the more commonly documented challengers to Western science domination such as China, India and Brazil.
It found that Iran has been expanding fastest in the number of scientific papers published in peer-reviewed journals, growing from just 736 in 1996 to 13,238 in 2008.
Categories: Asia, Iran, Islam, Religion and Science, Turkey