Chris Mooney: Science Rocks - If Only it Could Catch America's Attention (HuffPo)

Disturbing highlights:

“• Only 18 percent know a scientist personally. For most, the first thing that probably comes to mind when they think “scientist” is a Hollywood stereotype—or the local TV weatherman.

• 44 percent cannot even name a scientific role model. And among those that do give a name, their top three choices—Bill Gates, Al Gore, and Albert Einstein—are either not scientists, or not alive.

• Information about science is vanishing from the national news media. According to 2008 figures from the Project for Excellence in Journalism, if you watch 5 hours of cable news, you can expect to see about a minute devoted to science and technology coverage. And no wonder: Only 13 percent of Americans now say they follow science and technology news “very closely,” and that number has been dropping in recent years. The media is giving the people what they want.

• Perhaps most disturbing: Far fewer Americans today describe scientific innovations as among the country’s top achievements—27 percent in 2009 versus 47 percent a decade earlier. The same goes for space exploration and the moon landing—far fewer rank it as our greatest overall achievement.”

And some hope:

“We need to mobilize American kids to want to be scientists; and American adults to see how science—and the policies tied to it—affect to their lives and our future. Science has to stop being something those strange other people do; it has to be something we all live and breathe.”

There’s an awesome project mentioned in this article called Rock Stars of Science.  

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  1. rashers reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
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  10. absolutereality reblogged this from itsfullofstars and added:
    Disturbing highlights:...“• Only 18 percent know a scientist personally. For most, the...
  11. sujata reblogged this from itsfullofstars
  12. chelchacha reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
  13. oopsixxx reblogged this from randomlancila and added:
    interesting, but i’m guilty as well :-/
  14. randomlancila reblogged this from missile and added:
    I am guilty of this. Besides my boner for Carl Sagan, I know very little about science or scientists.
  15. ghoulified reblogged this from itsfullofstars and added:
    Wow, I really do not belong in America. None of that applies to me. Do want Rock Stars of Science, though.
  16. faildork reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
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  21. thubani reblogged this from itsfullofstars and added:
    now i feel kind of guilty for going into art instead. Science is seriously important. 8( And really, really cool! Why...
  22. missile reblogged this from jtotheizzoe
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