by user 71.232.79.180 Despite spending more than $404,800,000,000 on an immoral and foolish war in , the remains both very rich and very smart. It is widely believed that the spent over $300,000,000,000 on research and development last year. Since they began handing them out in 1901, Americans, including UMass professor Craig Mello, have been awarded the Nobel Prize far more than any other nationality. The only country with more institutions of higher learning than the is , and they have roughly four times as many people. Clearly, the is the most intellectual country on earth. So how is it possible that the rest of the world is laughing at us when it comes to science?