dimossi

In Carl Sagan's book, Demon Haunted World, he claims that over 90% of North Americans are "scientifically illiterate".

Sagan doesn't go into any details of how he arrived at this number or what credentials one would require in order to be considered scientifically literate. Now I certainly do not have any complaints about Carl Sagan's book. It is one of the greatest books I have ever read. It is just that I started to ponder just how Sagan established these statistics.

Does anyone know, or speculate, that some study may have been done in order to get that statistic?

Does "scientifically illiterate" possibly mean that one could not pass a High School science class? Or perhaps, "scientifically illiterate" simply means one who prefers to believe in pseudoscience and disregards the scientific method, critical thinking and skepticism. If so, how would one do a study that would conclude that 90% of Americans are "scientifically illiterate"?

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: dimossi ]</p>

Principia

There have been <a href="http://www.ed.gov/PressReleases/02-1998/timss.html" target="_blank">international studies</a> that have described how poorly high school students in the US are doing comparatively in science and mathematics. I don't actually know how accurate these TIMSS studies are, but they have been a source of alarm for the gov't. Another repeat of the studies are <a href="http://www.timss.org" target="_blank">being planned</a> I believe.

One only has to look around, though, in my opinion.

SC

Coragyps

In <a href="http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind00/start.htm" target="_blank">this report, </a>down in the appendices, is table 8-9, which offers a few chilling facts from a National Science Foundation poll in 1999. A couple of selections:
57% of US adults thought that "lasers work by focusing sound waves."
55% agreed that "antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria."
49% knew that the Earth takes a year to orbit the Sun - in an earlier question 28% said that the Sun goes around the Earth.
13% of those polled could give a satisfactory definition of a molecule; 11% of radiation.
Brrrr.

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Coragyps ]</p>

Bunda

I would expect scientifically illiterate to mean not understanding the fundamentals of science. Unfortunately, science classes are so dumbed down they could probably still pass.

I do not know if any study was done, it may just be what he expects and has seen from his experiences. I would not be surprised if the percentage was even higher.

brahma

How is it then that such a large percentage of major scientific discoveries and innovation come from American universities and labs? Is it the genius of that 10% who are "scientifically literate" that is responsible for this? Or is it due to the non-North American immigrants who were schooled in another country and now work in America? What is the explaination for this disparity?

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: brahma ]</p>

Toto

American science benefited from European immigrants fleeing Hitler before World War II, and continues to benefit from a brain drain from the rest of the world. Look at the nationalities of the science and engineering graduate students in any university.

But it is also true that the non-hierarchical American system produces a small number of highly creative scientists and a large number of semi-literates who believe in weird science.

DarkDruid

From what I've heard regarding the US and fornign education systems, it seems like the top scorers in the US are usually the top scorers of the world. In other words, we train the best of the best, but have a tendancy to leave the others behind and forget about them. This would explain why we are so advanced in many areas, but our average scores are so incredibly low!

Principia

One reason could simply be the financial strength of the American research institutions. There aren't that many other places else in the world where the similar funds exist for the sake of research. Take the Superconducting Super Collider. It was a research venture that, though eventually discontinued, represents the willingness of the government to spend at will without requiring necessarily any adequate results.

SC

[ April 06, 2002: Message edited by: Scientiae ]</p>

Vorkosigan

The questions above assume that scientific illiteracy in the US country is somehow an outlier. My experience of other countries suggests that Americans are far more literate than most other peoples of the earth when it comes to science. Most Taiwanese I know are almost totally illiterate about science and care little for it. I won't even talk about Kenyans...

The reason we have such prodigious scientific output here is that we have excellent funding, a strong and vibrant scientific establishment that is basically not under authoritarian political control, a university culture that encourages, rather than attacks, competent researchers and teachers, a diverse industrial base that demands high quality scientific work, an accountable public policy system that accepts input from science, and of course, the best educational system in the world.

Michael

Answerer

Sorry to tell you that, more and more Tawianese are interested in science , although the percentage is still small. Anyway, if the Americans aren't going to do anything to change thier present situation. I think in ten or twenty years' time, the degree of ignorance of science among the Americans will be equivalent to that of the Tawianese.