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The More You Know
January 16th, 2008 (04:35 pm)
The National Science Board reports that scientific and mathematical knowledge among my fellow Americans lags behind the rest of the world. From the NY Times article on the subject:
Many Americans remain ignorant about much of science, the board said. Many are unable to answer correctly when asked whether Earth moves around the Sun (it does).That parenthetical statement kills me. Ted Alvarez adds this observation:
Americans are not terribly far off the mark in some science fields, but there's a particular ignorance when compared to other countries concerning two major subjects: evolution and the Big Bang.In an election year when a presidential candidate who denies the validity of evolution is a serious contender, that doesn't surprise me. Yet as bad as this "willfully ignorant" condition may sound, the current state of science and technology in the U.S. is a mixed bag, as outlined by Computing Research Policy Blog:
- world science and engineering activities are shifting from the US and Europe, the traditional leaders, to Asia.
- US share of high tech manufacturing has stayed above 30 percent over the last twenty years
- Two-thirds of US R&D funding comes from industry and only 28 percent is from the federal government
- 2007 had a major downward curve in constant dollars of federal support for academic research
- Defense research, mostly development, accounts for over half of all federal R&D
- China’s PhD attainment is on a steep up curve but is still significantly below the US
- There has been an increase in S&E bachelors degrees in the US in all fields EXCEPT computing
- Most foreign born PhD candidates in the US plan to stay in the US
- 80 percent of the public supports federal funding of basic research and 40 percent believe there is too little federal funding of basic research
The "positive" parts of that mixed bag aren't as positive as you think. The increase in S and E bachelors degrees is due in part to the presence of foreign students swelling the ranks. The foreign born PhD candidates in the US who plan to stay in the US are probably going to be discouraged to stay or directly ejected, unless they've proved they have has much potential as Einstein, which is not easy to do.
This lack of interest in Science seems widespread, regardless of income or status.
The amazing thing about your current White House race is that even the democratic candidates look totally clueless wben it comes to understanding Science. You don't notice it easily because they don't actually attack Science. They just show an astounding lack of comprehension.
My latest favorite was Barak Obama because I thought it would be kinda cool that on his state visit to Canada as the first African-American president he would be greeted at the official reception by Governor-General Micael Jean. She's Canada's first African-Canadian Governor-General, and official head of state and sole representative of our Queen here. The situation would be even cooler cuz African-Canadians represent a really tiny part of Canada's population, and this is the second time in a row that we have a woman Governor General.
So I was watching Obama more than most. I was a bit stunned when I read about his space policy. He wanted to cut funding for space exploration and put it in education. This showed a deep misunderstanding of the nature of Science.
When I thought about it further I realised that Hilary Clinton was probably as equally clueless when she said she'd put more money in space exploration. Thses people are professional politicians who don't know about Science and don't care enough to learn about it.