CHICAGO - When Jon D. Miller looks out across America, which he can almost do from his 18th-floor office at Northwestern University Medical School in Chicago, he sees a landscape of haves and have-nots - in terms not of money, but of knowledge.

Dr. Miller, 63, a political scientist who directs the Center for Biomedical Communications at the medical school, studies how much Americans know about science and what they think about it. His findings are not encouraging.

While scientific literacy has doubled over the past two decades, only 20 to 25 percent of Americans are "scientifically savvy and alert," he said in an interview. Most of the rest "don't have a clue." At a time when science permeates debates on everything from global warming to stem cell research, he said, people's inability to understand basic scientific concepts undermines their ability to take part in the democratic process.

Over the last three decades, Dr. Miller has regularly surveyed his fellow citizens for clients as diverse as the National Science Foundation, European government agencies and the Lance Armstrong Foundation. People who track Americans' attitudes toward science routinely cite his deep knowledge and long track record.

"I think we should pay attention to him," said Eugenie Scott, director of the National Center for Science Education, who cites Dr. Miller's work in her efforts to advance the cause of evolution in the classroom. "We ignore public understanding of science at our peril."

Rolf F. Lehming, who directs the science foundation's surveys on understanding of science, calls him "absolutely authoritative."

Dr. Miller's data reveal some yawning gaps in basic knowledge. American adults in general do not understand what molecules are (other than that they are really small). Fewer than a third can identify DNA as a key to heredity. Only about 10 percent know what radiation is. One adult American in five thinks the Sun revolves around the Earth, an idea science had abandoned by the 17th century.

At one time, this kind of ignorance may not have meant much for the nation's public life. Dr. Miller, who has delved into 18th-century records of New England town meetings, said that back then, it was enough "if you knew where the bridge should be built, if you knew where the fence should be built."

"Even if you could not read and write, and most New England residents could not read or write," he went on, "you could still be a pretty effective citizen."

No more. "Acid rain, nuclear power, infectious diseases - the world is a little different," he said.

It was the nuclear power issue that first got him interested in public knowledge of science, when he was a graduate student in the 1960's. "The issue then was nuclear power," he said. "I used to play tennis with some engineers who were very pro-nuclear, and I was dating a person who was very anti-nuclear. I started doing some reading and discovered that if you don't know a little science it was hard to follow these debates. A lot of journalism would not make sense to you."

Devising good tests to measure scientific knowledge is not simple. Questions about values and attitudes can be asked again and again over the years because they will be understood the same way by everyone who hears them; for example, Dr. Miller's surveys regularly ask people whether they agree that science and technology make life change too fast (for years, about half of Americans have answered yes) or whether Americans depend too much on science and not enough on faith (ditto).

But assessing actual knowledge, over time, "is something of an art," he said. He varies his questions, as topics come and go in the news, but devises the surveys so overall results can be compared from survey to survey, just as SAT scores can be compared even though questions on the test change.

For example, he said, in the era of nuclear tests he asked people whether they knew about strontium 90, a component of fallout. Today, he asks about topics like the workings of DNA in the cell because "if you don't know what a cell is, you can't make sense of stem cell research."

More here: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/30/science/...d726261&ei=5070

fred666: The actual results from 2001 actually show 1 in 4 Americans (25%) don't know that the Earth revolves around the sun:
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/seind02/append/c7/at07-10.pdf

Hehe, that's so pre-1543...

I for one believe that the world revolves around me, so you're all wrong.

Dumb.

now this is scary remarks right there

I believe these 20% are people who works at fast foods

those 20% that think the Sun revolves around the Earth probably don't know that there are other countries in the world.

Sorry but I think this guy is full of crap. There may be some people who believe that no matter what country you go to, but one in five? BS.

Bulls*it. 1 in 5? I could probably ask 100 people I know and they'd all get it right. I don't know who this guy is asking. Just another "dumb American" thing.

what a useless topic.....consider logic, sheesh........

It is funny to think that this is true but statistics can show what ever you want them to show. Depends on who was surveyed, ages of people surveyed, how big the population size was and for how long the survey was carried out etc..... So I'd be interested to see the breakdown.

Well put!

* No comment* People are as their leaders

We need this lower half of the population to cook my chalupa and bag my groceries.

^^ROFLMAO!!!
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i wouldnt be supprised that they do

Sounds like something Amish would believe.

That is so true!
Without these kinds of people who would collect all the shopping trolley's and put them back in the "Trolley Park"?

Oh the horror, trolley's (sp?) everywhere.......

wow americans.... lol all I got to say is WOW. L!O!L!OL!

don't judge us all by the quote of another........

These "surveys" are so amazingly skewed. Often the author sets out to try and prove something he has already decided, and manipulates the data to suit.

We get them every so often in the lower-class newspapers over here. Examples being along the lines of:

"1 in 4 schoolkids think Robbie Williams is the president" or such dross.

Lol, I liked that. Nicely done.
As for the topic, these things are probably slightly biased as he's probably finding people who can't afford a basic education etc.

rofl

Somehow I think I can believe that and am almost not surprised. I think 1 in 5 is pushing it, but I have no doubt that there are quite a few people in America that are ignorant to basic scientific principals and what most of us consider common sense.

As to those bashing fast food workers: I'm still young and in school; I have a part time job at a fast food restauraunt near by, and the people who work there are by far more intelligent than many people with high-income jobs in my mind. That's not to say it's like that all over. I agree with many of you that there are quite a few "low", uninformed individuals over the country working at fast food for one reason or another, but that's because it's easy to get a job in places like that. Just because it's an easy to get job doesn't mean the people are unintelligent. I just don't like the idea that some of you single out a specific group of people by what they do for a living.

Edit: And I bet there are worse [developed] countries where the citizens are even less knowledgeable than this survey "tries" to show for Americans.

So you are unwilling to accept the fact that the members of some specific groups have a higher probability of being smarter than those of other groups?

I think, though, that one's lack scientific knowledge does not disqualify him from being a valuable member of society. What would we do if there were no more janitors or people like Biker803 to make me my delicious grilled-stuffed burritos and mexi-nuggets? Or farmers? Most people that do gene splicing, for instance, couldn't make a spicy crunchwrap supreme or grow a crop of corn if their life depended on it.

85% of statistics are made up.

wow, just wow.

I'd like to see to actual raw statistics for this study, so I can come to my own conclusion.

do the 20% believe the other 80% should be burnt and the stake for being non believers?

I would love to see the face of the person who waste his time doing this study

If 1/5 Americans believe the Sun revolves around Earth, I guess the other 4/5 Americans believe the World revolves around America

If it's true... I have one thing to say... thanks for making me look bad you idiots. You are the reason the world thinks America is stupid.

I work at Subway, so I can't make you those things. Only so much I can do while I'm in school.

Seriously though, I did say that I agree that there are quite a few unknowledgeable individuals in the fast food industry, meaning I was inferring it was more likely to find these types of people who work in that area. Janitors, fast food, all the like are important in their own ways as well, yes, but I wasn't referring to value of the jobs, either. It just makes me think when everyone singles out fast food workers first. Just like stereotypicalizing Americans for being overweight and selfish when you can find these same traits in many citizens of other countries. That's off-topic, but I was just making a point. I really wonder though how many people with decent jobs know less than these other low-income workers? The basic assumption of fast food workers is that they're there 'cause they either dropped out of high school or didn't goto college and therefore are incapable of making it in society and don't deserve a good paying job. I completely disagree with that, though every employer would be against me on my views. Ah well, maybe I've said enough.

no offence but surely the yanks cant be this stupid ?

I'm not really surprised... for as many intellectual areas like New York there are as many, if not more, backwards states like Mississippi (which has an average IQ of 85). Unfortunately it is the sum of all parts that makes the whole.

Well with 7,000+ posts on Neowin, who are we to argue

That is so ironic.

Wait until thay test the rest of the world and then we can fight.

or these ppl are immigrants from Bulgaria?

please keep your useless comments to you

I am glad that I am not in that 20%

Not surprising.

HAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAH

But really im in NJ/NY area i have never in my life met people this dumb....really! and i dont live where huge fat people live that much on fast food all day...

Cause that was funny... you get a NEOWIN clap, i ment a clap with the image in your sig

I can't believe much of that. Even americans aren't stupid, well I suppose it's passed from the leader.

I knew americans were a little dumb, but not this much.

LOL True True....

I getting sick of the American punch-lines cause they sound like microsoft jokes just complaining, most just pick up a magazine and see "Americans are fat and stupid" and believe... hahaha

Who is really the stupids ones, most havent even been here

So what im saying is yes there are fat and dumbd people all over the world but they arent made in America we just happen to have some