American Scientific Illiteracy

[lvstephanie]

Is it just me or have others noticed that it seems like more and more people have such a poor knowledge about science, and tend to base their opinions on non-scientific sources than on actual science? The Daily Show had a clip (see http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/g1lev1/an-outbreak-of-liberal-idiocy) where they had a reporter looking into the issue of how Americans are not getting their children vaccinated leading to the resurgence of preventable diseases... The reporter (obviously left leaning) first looked to the "red" states and conservatives since they tend to doubt certain scientific theories like evolution, but was surprised to find that in this particular case it was more in affluent neighborhoods of "blue" states that tended to fear vaccinations.

I've seen other things on the internet (esp. Facebook) that is also disturbing for their lack of scientific knowledge or even of the scientific process. There was a YouTube clip shared by some activist site (that was shared on FB by a friend of mine) that showed milk curdling when mixed with Coke. The activist site in its article pointed out the milk curds and rhetorically asked "What is that?! Sugar?! Dirt?! Cancer?!". The video was used as "proof" of everything from the reason why Coke causes osteoporosis (the caffeine in Coke may affect calcium absorption, but the phosphoric acid does not eat the bones as some would have you believe) to lactose intolerance in commercial milk (as though organic milk contains no lactose?!). The comments on YouTube were just as disturbing... Some of the most absurd ones claimed that this was evidence of grains from Monsanto being fed to cows where the milk came from, and that Coke was therefore safer than milk to drink. It was as if few people knew that milk curdles in the presence of an acid (breaking milk into curds and whey, which is the process used to make cheese).

[mh874892]

My husband and I were just talking about this the other day. It's disturbing how uneducated our country is, whether science related or not. I guess the easy access to crap information (for lack of a better description) ruins actual learning and knowledge consumption. Is technology to blame? Parents? I don't know. But I do know that when I have kids, proper education will be a huge focus!

[lvstephanie]

That's true, that it isn't necessarily just in science either... I'm not really a grammar *bleep*, but that seems to be another area that I've seen more and more issues with (I know, I'm talking about good grammar, and then I end the sentence with a preposition). I do think that technology is somewhat to blame. With the internet, it is so easy to look up information, even if that info. is not correct. The web also allows people to spread stories creating anecdotal evidence, and using that as "proof" of something instead of using actual experiments and statistical analysis to develop "hard" evidence.

[freedomcash11]

I have noticed it too, it is very sad seeing were this country is going. I Really don't know what is the real problem

[sarabtrayior]

I've also noticed it, however, I am not doing anything myself to help the scientist, so who am I to talk about it...