http://tinyurl.com/23xxy4

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/30profile.html?ex=
1183780800&en=e3760aa7d1b5022a&ei=5070


[...]

Dr. Miller, 63, a political scientist who directs the Center for  
Biomedical Communications at the medical school, studies how much  
Americans know about science and what they think about it. His  
findings are not encouraging.

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only  
20 to 25 percent of Americans are "scientifically savvy and alert,"  
he said in an interview. Most of the rest "don't have a clue." At a  
time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming  
to stem cell research, he said, people's inability to understand  
basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in  
the democratic process.

[...]

Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge.  
American adults in general do not understand what molecules are  
(other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can  
identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what  
radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves  
around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.


-- 
William T Goodall
Mail : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web  : http://www.wtgab.demon.co.uk
Blog : http://radio.weblogs.com/0111221/

"I believe OS/2 is destined to be the most important operating  
system, and possibly program, of all time." - Bill Gates, 1987


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