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What?! http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/03/22/sunday/main3960219.shtml

I had a discussion with some friends tonight about Taiwan's economy that prompted me to look up some hard numbers. Here's what I found (sorry, couldn't do tables..): South Korea: GDP - Real Growth Rate Year GDP - real growth rate Rank Percent Change Date of Information 2003 6.20 % 19 2002 est. 2004 3.10 % 106 -50.00 % 2003 est. 2005 4.60 % 93 48.39 % 2004 est. 2006 4.00 % 123 -13.04 % 2005 est. 2007 4.80 % 108 20.00 % 2006 est. Taiwan: GDP - Real Growth Rate Year GDP - real growth rate Rank Percent Change Date of Information 2003 3.50 % 85 2002 est. 2004 3.20 % 101 -8.57 % 2003 est. 2005 6.00 % 51 87.50 % 2004 est. 2006 4.00 % 118 -33.33 % 2005 est. 2007 4.60 % 114 15.00 % 2006 est. We are definitely NOT far behind South Korea in terms of growth. We even beat South Korea in 2005. This is a promising indicator. South Korea does have, and has always had (at least since 2003), larger GDP purchasing power parity. So Taiwan has in some

From Scientific American: NANOTUBE YOGA MAT? The darlings of materials science, carbon nanotubes are superstrong and highly electrically conductive. But they are also finer and far shorter than the hair on a baby's head, which makes it hard to incorporate their full range of properties into everyday materials. Now a U.S. company has made sheets of the sooty stuff big enough to cover a grown-up. Nanocomp Technologies, Inc., based in Concord, N.H., wove its millimeter-length nanotubes into slim bundles and deposited them onto a rotating drum, yielding sheets up to three feet (one meter) wide and six feet long (such as the one shown here). The company says its paperlike nanotube sheets are as tough as stainless steel, 30 times less dense and might be useful in shielding electronics from interference or making ultrastrong composite materials.

http://www.wretch.cc/video/scientisttw These videos are well worth the watch. I think all those interviewed are heavyweights in Taiwan's scientific community. Some have also held influential positions in the DPP administration. They all believe that the last 8 years of DPP government has been good and beneficial to science and research in Taiwan. Let's hope that the DPP has another 4-8 years to push through some of the reforms they have started.