

Why America is flunking science - drewr
http://www.salon.com/env/feature/2009/07/13/science_illiteracy/

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gizmo
Most western countries are "flunking" science because it's hard work, lacks
prestige, pays poorly, and you're unlikely to discover anything new even if
you put in the necessary hours.

As we discover more and more about the world the more dedication it will take
to make progress in a field. So it makes sense that you want fewer and more
dedicated people.

Does Hollywood caricature scientists? Of course. But Hollywood isn't exactly
know for its nuance. Business men are always evil (unless the business is
failing, in which case the owner is the sympathetic underdog). Politicians are
corrupt or incompetent. Is Hollywood to blame for the general indifference to
science, I doubt that.

To summarize:

1\. fewer people devote their life to science. I don't think this is a bad
thing.

2\. (young) people are indifferent about politics, the world, science, and
most "stuff that matters". This probably is bad, but it certainly does not
have a simple identifiable cause.

~~~
lallysingh
1\. Few other topics (specifically, art, literature, dance) really contribute
to the sum of humanity as well as science does. When we're young, we want to
be firemen, ballerinas and astronauts. Only later do we get talked into fields
with higher personal ROI.

2\. Really, indifferent? I spent quite a few years at protests and rallys with
quite a few other students the last few years. Hardly indifferent.

------
tokenadult
"Crichton had little patience for scientists' complaints about ridiculous sci-
fi plots and wild scientist stereotyping. In a 1999 lecture before the annual
meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he
countered such gripes with his own perspective on why scientists will probably
never be very happy with the products of Hollywood. As Crichton advised, there
are at least four important rules of movies that just don't mesh with the real
process of research: '(i) Movie characters must be compelled to act. (ii)
Movies need villains. (iii) Movie searches are dull. (iv) Movies must move.'
Crichton argued that real science, with its long, drawn-out intellectual
processes and frequent dead ends, simply can't be reconciled with such
exigencies. 'The problems lie with the limitations of film as a visual
storytelling medium,' he concluded. 'You aren't going to beat it.'"

The other important message of this article is that being smart doesn't
prevent people from having mistaken ideas about science. Smart people can fall
for plausible but scientifically incorrect statements about topics debated
about in politics, because not all people, and not even all smart people,
devote much time to examining evidence and making sure that conclusions are
supported by evidence.

~~~
koepked
_...not all people, and not even all smart people, devote much time to
examining evidence and making sure that conclusions are supported by
evidence._

I'm extremely guilty of this, and it bothers me. But what bothers me more is
knowing how much time and effort would be required from me to be capable of
making evidence-backed claims about everything I'm interested in. You make
time for what's important to you, and the truth is definitely important to me,
but so is family, building my django skills, learning Scheme, reading GEB,
considering ideas for a possible startups... The choice then is what/who to
trust, the majority of scientists? The smartest ones (identified how?)? My own
perceptions and ideas? The government-backed scientists?

Sceince suffers because people don't have time for it, and because they can't
necessarily trust those who do.

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vaksel
Because science is boring. There are too little interesting opportunities out
there. For every "dream" "fun" science job, there are millions of monotone,
low paying, grinding positions that suck the life out of you.

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tybris
And there's more scientific research than ever and more in the US than
anywhere else in the world. Please use reddit for mass emotion articles.

------
jussij
> Why America is flunking science

Two words: Intelligent Design

~~~
lallysingh
Thanks for making me cry on the inside, dick.

:-)

