How To Make Science Popular Again?

Ars Technica has an interesting look at the recent book Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens Our Future, a collaboration between Chris Mooney, writer and author of The Republican War on Science, and scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum. While it seems the book's substance is somewhat lacking it raises an interesting point; how can science be better integrated with mainstream culture for greater understanding and acceptance? "We must all rally toward a single goal: without sacrificing the growth of knowledge or scientific innovation, we must invest in a sweeping project to make science relevant to the whole of America's citizenry. We recognize there are many heroes out there already toiling toward this end and launching promising initiatives, ranging from the Year of Science to the World Science Festival to ScienceDebate. But what we need — and currently lack — is the systematic acceptance of the idea that these actions are integral parts of the job description of scientists themselves. Not just their delegates, or surrogates, in the media or the classrooms."

Beer & Hookers

[Rennt]

'nuff said

How to make science popular?

[Totenglocke]

The only way you'll make science popular is to get society to quite worshiping brainless athletes. Sorry, but I don't see the moronic masses giving up their worship of sports because they lack the ability to understand science easily so they cling to the unintelligent things that they can easily grasp.

Re:Wrong question

[MrNaz]

And wow, I completely didn't address the post I originally intended to reply to. Talk about rushing headlong...

Re:Wrong question

[DiscountBorg(TM)]

I don't think there's anything new there. As the anecdote goes, when Galileo presented the telescope to some of his peers, they didn't even bother looking at the sky, they didn't care. Instead they started using it to snoop on their neighbors.

Re:Wrong question

[Anonymous Coward]

"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." (Margaret Thatcher)

"I'm not a dork." (A dork on the internet)

Re:Easy!

[sconeu]

For public school situations take that damn football money and use it for science classes.

What are you, some kind of socialist nerd?

Re:Wrong question

[spleendamage]

Scientists were my heroes as a kid.

I used to watch Creature Feature movies and dream of being the scientist who could come up with something to beat the monster, shark, spiders or whatever was menacing society in that 90 minutes.

Making more monster movies doesn't quite sound like the whole solution, however. ;)

Re:IQ tests can never be culturally neutral

[tool462]

IQ tests simply fail this; they presuppose that everybody is a well-mannered urban European middle-class authority-fearing white-coat-deferring sit-downer, who is just delighted to sit down and perform decontextualized, pointless intellectual exercise on command.

In high school I was voted the most likely to be a well-mannered urban European middle-class authority-fearing white-coat-deferring sit-downer, who is just delighted to sit down and perform decontextualized, pointless intellectual exercise on command.

I also like crosswords and sudoku.

Not make it illegal or impossible?

[smchris]

Maybe it was natural selection and a good thing. I survived multiple chemistry sets and so did my parent's homes. Of course, I got my free sample of thermite igniter with the model rocketry catalog and stuck it to a power cord. Got an amateur radio license and built a bunch of stuff from kits and scratch and, perhaps as importantly there, I learned that a license that took some study could be revoked for irresponsibility -- much like my life could be if I stuck my hand in the tank circuit irresponsibly. All good stuff.

Re:Anti-intellectualism

[linhares]

Most insightful comment, sir. You win one internet.