Americans like science. Overwhelming majorities say that science has had a positive effect on society and that science has made life easier for most people. Most also say that government investments in science, as well as engineering and technology, pay off in the long run.
While the public holds scientists in high regard, many scientists offer unfavorable, if not critical, assessments of the public’s knowledge and expectations. Fully 85% see the public’s lack of scientific knowledge as a major problem for science.
A substantial percentage of scientists also say that the news media have done a poor job educating the public. The scientists are particularly critical of television news coverage of science.
While scientists express frustration with the public, there are some significant points of agreement between the public and the scientific community. Majorities of both groups point to advances in medicine and life sciences as important achievements of science.
However, when it comes to contemporary scientific issues, there are often differences. For example, while 84% of scientists say the earth is getting warmer because of human activity such as burning fossil fuels, just 49% of the public agrees.
So what's to be done? Truthfully, not much because people would rather be entertained than informed.
There are gold mines of knowledge in Wikipedia, TED, Nova, Earth & Sky, National Geographic -- just to name a few.
But when it comes to having the TV remote in their hands, it's time for sports, mindless contest shows or cultist opinion programs.
(Extracted from this article, except for the closing opinions which are mine.)
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