Home > News > Is the Science Glass Half Full, or Half Empty?
January 20th, 2010
Is the Science Glass Half Full, or Half Empty?
Abstract:
Chris Mooney: As Science and Engineering Indicators 2010 itself admits, seeing how the country fares on science in comparison with other nations isn't the only possible means of judgment. If one's standard is more ambitious—emphasizing, in the latest report's words, "what a technologically advanced society requires (either today or in the future) to compete in the world economy and enable its citizens to better take advantage of science progress in their own lives"—then it is very hard to feel good about the current state of affairs in the United States.
For instance, just 13 percent of the public now claims to follow science and technology news "very closely," and this number has been on a downward trend for the past decade, ending with the current low. So while Americans may profess great admiration for science in the abstract, they hardly feel compelled to pay it much attention.
Similarly, there has been little apparent improvement over time in Americans' basic ability to answer factual questions about science correctly. Moreover, the vast majority of our citizens have scant familiarity with key emerging scientific fields that will dramatically shape the future, such as nanotechnology and biotechnology—and it is important to note that these are the only such fields that the NSF report focuses in on. Ask Americans about other coming scientific technologies or quandaries—say, geoengineering, or synthetic biology—and I imagine the responses would be even more dismal.
Source:
discovermagazine.com
Bookmark:
News and information
Pioneering breakthrough of chemical nanoengineering to design drugs controlled by light June 18th, 2013
Study Shows How the Nanog Protein Promotes Growth of Head and Neck Cancer June 18th, 2013
New Method to Synthesize Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles with High Catalytic Activity June 18th, 2013
Production of Polyaniline Biosensors Modified with Conductive Polymer Composites June 18th, 2013
Academic/Education
CNSE Welcomes Record Number of Students, Majority of Whom are New Yorkers, for Prestigious Summer Internship Program June 12th, 2013
FEI and University of Oklahoma Begin Collaboration Research Agreement for Understanding and Developing Unconventional Oil and Gas Reservoirs: Collaboration effort will focus on new methods to classify shales in the economic assessment of “tight” resource plays June 7th, 2013
Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz obtains new Collaborative Research Center on "Nanodimensional polymer therapeutics for tumor therapy" June 2nd, 2013
Lorraine University uses Nanoparticle Tracking Analysis to characterize biomolecules for agrichemicals, pharmacology and cosmetics May 28th, 2013
Nanobiotechnology
Iranian Scientists Produce Dynamometer for Nanoparticles, Biocells June 15th, 2013
Shape of nanoparticles points the way toward more targeted drugs: A collaboration of scientists at Sanford-Burnham and the University of California, Santa Barbara, finds that rod-shaped particles, rather than spherical particles, appear more effective at adhering to cells June 10th, 2013
Catching individual molecules in a million with optical antennas inside nano-boxes June 10th, 2013
Whispering light hears liquids talk: University of Illinois researchers build first-ever bridge between optomechanics and microfluidics June 7th, 2013