From Slate (HT: Marginal Revolutions):
The world of scientists remains distant and bizarre to most Americans. Only 18 percent of Americans know a scientist personally, according to a 2005 survey (subscription required), and when asked in 2007 to name scientific “role models,” the results were dismal. Forty-four percent of Americans couldn’t come up with a name at all, and among those few who did, their top answers were either not scientists or not alive: Bill Gates, Al Gore, Albert Einstein.
I’ve said this before, but its worth saying again. Despite living in a society that depends so much on science and technology for its wealth and military supremacy over the world, there are a surprising number of Americans who pay it little attention and, as this quote points out, there’s an even larger group of people who seem woefully uneducated about it. This is disturbing as America is a democracy (or so I’m told) — and when a society that depends on science and technology is run by a population who knows very little about science and technology…