Benjamin S. Shen, an astronomy and astrophysics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, said the effort to attract more women and minorities "has not been working too well. This is very worrisome, because by 2010 the U.S. population is about one-third Black and Hispanic, and that is a large pool of talent we are not tapping.”

The number of Blacks getting undergraduate science and engineering degrees has risen in the last decade from 9,000 to 13,000-still not enough to change the national picture. The situation for Hispanics is no better.

The National Science Foundation is seeking 32 million from Congress this year for programs specifically to attract minorities, said Joseph G. Danek, the plan’s director.

“There is a prevailing myth that the federal government, at least in science and engineering, has put an enormous amount of  if they choose other professions, that background will help them in the long run.”

if they choose other professions, that background will help them in the long run.”  “I think what’s different now from 20 years ago is the motive. The motivation before was to be altruistic… do it on the basis of equity,” Danek said. “The motivation now is much more pragmatic and practical. We simply must develop a greater number of scientists and engineers.”

Oddly, no one in engineering or the natural sciences has done a rigorous study to find out why Americans are losing interest in these fields.

Some say that professions like law and medicine are considered more prestigious. And a number of scientists and teachers wonder whether affluent Americans are simply turned off by the hard work it takes to become a mathematician, physicists, or biochemist. Finally, money plays a role, especially the low stipends paid to doctoral students.

A scientific career also may not seem feasible for someone who doesn’t give the matter much thought in high school, and fails to take algebra, geometry, chemistry, and physical courses. By the time they hit science in college, “they’re lost, it doesn’t matter how bright they are. They are out of the pipeline,” said a staff member at the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, Inc., an industry funded group. Social courses also discourage Blacks from entering the sciences.

“It was demonstrated to me as something really difficult. I don’t know if it was intentional or unintentional, but [during high school] I got it into my head it would be something that I wasn’t good at,” said Kelly Woodland, who is majored in journalism in college. He is now the Future Career Center coordinator at the Franklin Institute, where his duties include attracting more Black high school students to the sciences.

Woodland says there is a large pool of potential Black scientists being tapped. Although Blacks are more than 12 percent of the U.S. population, only 26 percent of all scientist and engineers are Black.

“If you look at statistics and see 2 percent … and see the military is 22 or 25 percent, you get an idea where kids think the opportunities are.”

Noting that Blacks hold a variety of technical jobs in the military, Woodland says that if they received the right grounding in high school, “they could be the scientists” the nation is seeking.

The recent decline in the number of women in the sciences, Vetter says is because “we ran out of pioneers.” She argues that fewer women are willing to jump into non-traditional roles because conservative social forces are reasserting themselves.

And Margrete S. Klein, director of women’s programs for a division of the National Science Foundation, said sexism on the part of some males scientists still discourage women.

Whatever the obstacles, scientists say there is no choice but to look to minorities and women to overcome the looming shortage.

“This is the pool, this is what demographics are going to be,” said Joseph Bordogna, former Dean of the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Engineering and Applied Science. “And the nation will be really in trouble unless we do this.”

The rap tune “The Tist” (as in scientist) is now being eye by Epic Records, and Ragsdale will perform it next month at the Civic Center rap concert following the Penn Relays.

The song is a spin-off of Horton’s and Ragsdale’s work with the National Organizations for the Professional Advancement of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. Horton, 34, who holds a doctorate and is a marketing director at Rohm and Haas, heads the organization’s local chapter. It holds Saturday-morning seminars, competitive “Science Bowls,” and after-school tutoring to attract Black Students.

Ragsdale, 25, a research chemist at R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute in Springhouse, is the first male in his family to graduate from college. Now, Ragsdale wants to convince students that a science career does not require a special genius.

“All you have to do is have the drive.”