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USA ranked 27th in the world in education and healthcare — down from 6th in 1990
America continues to tread water in healthcare and education while other countries have enacted reforms to great effect.

- The American healthcare and education systems are known to need some work, but a new study suggests we've fallen far in comparison to the rest of the world.
- The findings show what progress, if any, 195 countries have made over the last twenty years
- The study suggests that economic growth is tied to human capital, which gives a dire view of America's economic prospects.
The concept of human capital has only been around since the '50s but it's become an increasingly popular way of looking at the economic potential of countries. Typically defined as "the attributes of a population that, along with physical capital such as buildings, equipment, and other tangible assets, contribute to economic productivity" it includes things such as education levels, skill sets, and other intangible items that foster economic growth.
While we already know that a countries' average education level is associated with its economic growth, a recent study looking into the growth of human capital around the world over the last 26 years has included healthcare outcomes to the mix. While it was created to help motivate lower and middle income countries to increase their human capital investment, it offers a harsh look at the progress the United States has made over the previous 20; if any.
The study
As part of the World Bank's call for more data on human capital, a team of researchers at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington scoured over three decades worth of educational and medical data to help create an index showing the levels of human capital for every country in the world for both 1990 and 2016.
In this study, human capital was defined as "expected years lived between the ages of 20 and 64." Adjustments were also made for health and education levels, which were also ranked and compared. The four variables listed in the final analysis were expected years lived between 20 and 64, functional health status, years of educational attainment, and learning or education quality.
All of this was then fused into a single "expected human capital" score for each country.
That’s great and all, but where is my country?
School children in the Central African Republic. Fostering human capital by means of education and improved healthcare systems is especially important in developing countries where growth projects typically focus on material goods.
(ALEXIS HUGUET/AFP/Getty Images
The United States fell 21 spots over the years from 6th to 27th. This places us in the company of Germany (24), Greece (25), Australia (26), and the Czech Republic (28). The top spots are dominated by Western European and Nordic countries, with Finland topping the list both in 1990 and 2016. South Korea and the Republic of China are the only non-European representatives in the top 10 for 2016, edging out Canada, which fell to 11th place.
Wait, how did that happen?
One problem was that America's scores declined in one significant category, educational attainment. The decrease in education spending during the time period studied might have caused this. Nevertheless, countries that increased spending in analyzed areas, such as Turkey and both Chinas, saw tremendous improvements in their position on the list.
That was the only dimension where the United States saw a decline, however. The other categories saw improvement — albeit marginal. The primary reason why the U.S. fell so far was that other countries were able to improve their scores by a lot more than America was. Austria, for example, was ranked 19th in both 1990 and 2016 but saw substantial gains across the board, allowing it to surpass the United States.
But, we spend so much money!
It's not that Americans don't spend a lot of money on these things. As a matter of fact, the U.S. spends more per student than almost any other country on education and way more than anybody else on healthcare.
The problem, or at least part of it, is that much of this money is spent inefficiently. The Nordic countries, which dominate the top spots on the list, have universal healthcare which provides better outcomes at a lower price than the American system does. Because of this system, the cost of drugs and health care administration is lower in Europe than in America. Last year, half a billion dollars was spent on lobbying on behalf of healthcare providers, pharmaceutical companies, and insurance companies which could have been spent on actual healthcare.
Today, there are still around 30 million Americans without health insurance despite progress over the last decade. The number of those uninsured has increased in the last couple of years due to rollbacks on Medicaid and reduced advertising of government programs.
These inefficiencies add up to mean that, despite increased spending, America's human capital scores hardly moved over the last three decades.
What does this all mean?
The study reconfirms the relationship between human capital and economic growth. With countries that make the most substantial investments in their populations seeing higher growth rates as a result. This could speak poorly for the future growth prospects of the United States if its relative position continues to decline.
President Jim Yong Kim of the World Bank hopes the data collected will help spur further investment by governments into education and healthcare. He framed the benefits of a single, comprehensive human capital index as a motivating force.
With the right measurements, an index ranking the human capital in countries will be hard to ignore, and it can help galvanize much more — and more effective — investments in people
The findings also offer a bit of good news for the world. Even the country that came in last place, Niger, made progress over the years. It just did so at a slower rate than everybody else.
If nothing else, the relative decline of the United States over the last few decades shows that no country can rest on its laurels. Like the Red Queen in Through the Looking Glass tells us, "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!"
- 10 reasons Finland's school system is better than America's ›
- Education innovation: Our window of opportunity is here ›
'Space Hurricane' confirmed to have formed above Earth
This storm rained electrons, shifted energy from the sun's rays to the magnetosphere, and went unnoticed for a long time.
- An international team of scientists has confirmed the existence of a "space hurricane" seven years ago.
- The storm formed in the magnetosphere above the North magnetic pole.
- The storm posed to risk to life on Earth, though it might have interfered with some electronics.
What do you call that kind of storm when it forms over the Arctic ocean?
<iframe width="730" height="430" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8GqnzBJkWcw" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe><p> Many objects in space, like Earth, the Sun, most of the planets, and even some large moons, have magnetic fields. The area around these objects which is affected by these fields is known as the magnetosphere.</p><p>For us Earthlings, the magnetosphere is what protects us from the most intense cosmic radiation and keeps the solar wind from affecting our atmosphere. When charged particles interact with it, we see the aurora. Its fluctuations lead to changes in what is known as "space weather," which can impact electronics. </p><p>This "space hurricane," as the scientists are calling it, was formed by the interactions between Earth's magnetosphere and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interplanetary_magnetic_field" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interplanetary magnetic field,</a> the part of the sun's magnetosphere that goes out into the solar system. It took on the familiar shape of a cyclone as it followed magnetic fields. For example, the study's authors note that the numerous arms traced out the "footprints of the reconnected magnetic field lines." It rotated counter-clockwise with a speed of nearly 7,000 feet per second. The eye, of course, was still and <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/for-the-first-time-a-plasma-hurricane-has-been-detected-in-space" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">calm</a>.</p><p>The storm, which was invisible to the naked eye, rained electrons and shifted energy from space into the ionosphere. It seems as though such a thing can only form under calm situations when large amounts of energy are moving between the solar wind and the upper <a href="https://www.reading.ac.uk/news-and-events/releases/PR854520.aspx" target="_blank">atmosphere</a>. These conditions were modeled by the scientists using 3-D <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21459-y#Sec10" target="_blank">imaging</a>.<br><br>Co-author Larry Lyons of UCLA explained the process of putting the data together to form the models to <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/science/space/space-hurricane-rained-electrons-observed-first-time-rcna328" target="_blank">NBC</a>:<br><br>"We had various instruments measuring various things at different times, so it wasn't like we took a big picture and could see it. The really fun thing about this type of work is that we had to piece together bits of information and put together the whole picture."<br><br>He further mentioned that these findings were completely unexpected and that nobody that even theorized a thing like this could exist. <br></p><p>While this storm wasn't a threat to any life on Earth, a storm like this could have noticeable effects on space weather. This study suggests that this could have several effects, including "increased satellite drag, disturbances in High Frequency (HF) radio communications, and increased errors in over-the-horizon radar location, satellite navigation, and communication systems."</p><p>The authors <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-21459-y#Sec8" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speculate</a> that these "space hurricanes" could also exist in the magnetospheres of other planets.</p><p>Lead author Professor Qing-He Zhang of Shandong University discussed how these findings will influence our understanding of the magnetosphere and its changes with <a href="https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-03/uor-sho030221.php" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">EurekaAlert</a>:</p><p>"This study suggests that there are still existing local intense geomagnetic disturbance and energy depositions which is comparable to that during super storms. This will update our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling process under extremely quiet geomagnetic conditions."</p>Surprising new feature of human evolution discovered
Research reveals a new evolutionary feature that separates humans from other primates.
Human evolution.
- Researchers find a new feature of human evolution.
- Humans have evolved to use less water per day than other primates.
- The nose is one of the factors that allows humans to be water efficient.
A model of water turnover for humans and chimpanzees who have similar fat free mass and body water pools.
Credit: Current Biology
Skepticism: Why critical thinking makes you smarter
Being skeptical isn't just about being contrarian. It's about asking the right questions of ourselves and others to gain understanding.
- It's not always easy to tell the difference between objective truth and what we believe to be true. Separating facts from opinions, according to skeptic Michael Shermer, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss, and others, requires research, self-reflection, and time.
- Recognizing your own biases and those of others, avoiding echo chambers, actively seeking out opposing voices, and asking smart, testable questions are a few of the ways that skepticism can be a useful tool for learning and growth.
- As Derren Brown points out, being "skeptical of skepticism" can also lead to interesting revelations and teach us new things about ourselves and our psychology.
New study suggests placebo might be as powerful as psychedelics
New study suggests the placebo effect can be as powerful as microdosing LSD.
