Arabs and the Nobel Prize

A friend of mine directed me to a ludicrous interview with an Iraqi researcher who claims that the Nobel Prize is the product of a Jewish conspiracy (is there any other kind in the Arab world?). His evidence? That Arabs have only ever won 4 such prizes while Jews have claimed 42 times that number.

The obvious ridiculousness aside, it does raise a good point: The Arab world's contribution to our body of knowledge is close to zero. This should not be surprising given that minds flourish more easily in a free environment than one that is oppressed. How much science and knowledge that is lost is really driven home when you consider the performance of Arabs who live in the free environment of the U.S.:

Arab Americans with at least a high school diploma number 85 percent. More than four out of ten Americans of Arab decent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 24% of Americans at large. Seventeen percent of Arab Americans have a post-graduate degree, which is nearly twice the American average (9%).

As Dan Quayle once said, a mind is a terrible thing to lose.