Interesting that this article should pop up on my email notifications:
Communicating Science...
Science 1 June 2007:
Vol. 316. no. 5829, p. 1286
DOI: 10.1126/science.1141343
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Books
COMMUNICATING SCIENCE:
Because Science Matters
Barbara Kline Pope*
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A Scientist's Guide to Talking with the Media
Practical Advice from the Union of Concerned Scientists
by Richard Hayes and Daniel Grossman
Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ, 2006. 228 pp. Paper, $18.95. ISBN 9780813538587.
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Recently, I was sitting with my five-year-old son on a dingy yellow leather chair in the uncomfortable quiet of our dermatologist's vast waiting room. As I was whisper-reading a Magic School Bus book to him, I heard the words, "Well, I can sort of believe in evolution…" Immediately looking up, I saw a woman in her mid-30s with an open book on her lap. She was relating her opinion to a retiring elderly man seated beside her. I listened intently, hoping for a lively discussion about a topic that is occupying much of my time these days. She continued, "but I just can't see that the big bang really happened."
Most of us are familiar with the dismal state of science literacy. Basic science concepts and facts escape many people. A majority of Americans say that they do not accept the validity of some of the most established scientific theories--as witnessed on that visit to the doctor. And perhaps the most important feature of the woeful state of public understanding of science is the average American's lack of a firm grasp of the process of science itself (1).
Hmmmm?
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