ABSTRACT
Developments in science and technology are driving rapid changes in the world resulting in benefits that are not equitably shared across the globe. It is noticeable that developing nations who are lagging behind in science and technology continue to fall farther and farther behind the industrialised nations that have resources to apply scientific advances and new technologies ever more intensively and creatively. Without necessarily proving a direct causation between investment in science and technology and economic development, there is ample evidence of a clear relationship between a country’s economic well-being and its ranking as a scientific and technological nation. As the industrialised nations continue to master the tools of science and technology, to vastly outspend the developing nations in R&D, and even to capture some of the developing nations’ most precious human resources for their own use, the disparity is predicted to grow ever wider.
