Scientific illiterate: the sun revolves around the sun!
Scientific Savvy? In U.S., Not Much - The New York Times
I saw this on another forum and I must say; I am a little disturbed and concern about Americans if this true to just some extent. Certainly, we do not have these kinds of problems in Denmark; I know of no one who would say the sun revolves around the earth! Alas, according to the article a lot of Americans are, by definition, scientific illiterate.
Just to clarify what is meant by scientific illiterate, here is a passage from the article:
quote:
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.
There are some more interesting details if you look into the article. I think, as hinted in the article, there might be a strong correlation between scientific illiterates and creationists — at least that is the feeling I have when I talk with creationists on the Internet. I have no reasonable hypothesis of why non-creationists would lack that much understanding of basic science, whom are asked in these surveys.
I thought the last part of the article was a little funny, but also a little sad:
quote:
[] But not everyone is happy when he says things like that. Every time he goes on the radio to talk about his findings, he said, "I get people sending me cards saying they will pray for me a lot."
What is your daily life experiences regarding this topic?
PS: the article is from 2005 so something might have changed.
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Edited by Adminnemooseus, : Changed opening link from being to page 2 to being to page 1. Also added "print friendly" link, which may also be more "reader friendly".
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