WHY IT MATTERS. An observation from Jay Nordlinger in National Review:

Every day, for the last several days, I’ve read about Nobel winners — in chemistry, physics, and medicine. And all the winners are American. You have to wonder whether this is purely accidental. Or whether the United States provides the conditions in which such questing and flourishing are possible.

And if the latter is true — why wouldn’t other countries go and do likewise, instead of shaking with resentment?

More to the point for Cold Spring Shops regulars: Many of those winners have positions in U. S. institutions of higher education. You have to wonder what those institutions are doing to make such questing and flourishing possible. And if their ability to do so is being eroded from within or from without.