Running off a cliff in profit-harvesting mode

Cartoon characters not infrequently run off the edge of a cliff. Pause. They then realise there is nothing there to support their running. Time lags are awkward to deal with in any analysis, but since most things do not happen overnight, they are ubiquitous. In analysis, we replace with a fudge factor. Or we ignore them.

I haven’t seen much comment on what I think is the most interesting aspect of the science news over the last few weeks. Here is a line from THE.

Five out of nine laureates in the core prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine and economic sciences were born in the UK. All crossed the pond as rather valuable immigrants to the US.

UK science, and many UK universities, have been in profit-harvesting mode for a long time now. Over the edge of that cliff.  Things are going  to fall apart. OK, what the hell:

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;  

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;