No, that's just one of many factors that are involved, and stems from the fundamental problem that causes car companies to want to be better than each other, food producers to be more efficient, teachers to get the best lessons for their students etc. There are a limited number of resources (money, manpower, labtime) and as such the best way to dish out these resources are by giving them to the best scientists (in terms of efficiency, reliability and their track record for producing results) and as such you see a great deal of competition between scientists who need to compete over these resources.
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