Gack, science is why you can drink tap water!
Where do these Canadians live that they think they don't use science? Are they bears that sh!t in the woods? How did they answer the questionnaire, standing barefoot in a dirt pile?
Science is embedded in our daily life.
http://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.4562812
People don't see that it's the basis of almost everything we touch anymore: they take that for granted, and only think of science as Falcon Heavy and CERN.
ReplyDeleteI would like to know what people think science is and what part do they think science plays in their daily lives. Maybe a lot of people think science is only the work done in labs and not in everyday things we use.
ReplyDeleteA significant number of North Americans don't know, or don't "believe" that The Earth orbits The Sun
ReplyDeleteNothing else is surprising.......
Was it an online poll? That would be super ironic. Telephone poll? Still super ironic. Done by mail? Yep, still ironic. Oh, they used smoke signals? Was wind factored into the margin of error? :P
ReplyDeleteThe headline is unduly negative. The poll: 54 per cent of parents completely agree that they want their children to know more about science, with 38 per cent saying they agree somewhat.
ReplyDeleteAlso, 67 per cent of Canadian respondents in the 3M-Ipsos poll said (Science is) very important.
ReplyDeleteMoreover: remember that scientists (from a here is the U.S. perspective) assured us that nuclear power plants were perfectly safe on earthquake faults, and that freeways would end traffic congestion. Some cynicism in these poll results is certainly due to the experience of the last 70 years.
ReplyDeleteBrian Arbenz Regarding freeways, I heard that building more freeways will only be a short term solution as it would encourage more traffic. After a few years, the increase traffic fills up the freeways again.
ReplyDeleteI find that people tend to remember the negatives. Take weather for instance. For the most part, weather forecasts are fairly accurate. However, they are not 100% accurate. People only remember the rare times the forecasts are not accurate and feel they are not accurate at all.
Gene Chiu I agree people remember negatives. And they also think in all or nothing (laziness?) terms which science doesn't do. All you have to do is look at pipelines. From activists you would think pipelines spill constantly however pipelines leak occasionally (<30%) into containment and spill rarely (<10%). Those spills could be reduced further with better inspection and response requirements.
ReplyDeleteWhere did "scientists" say that "nuclear power plants were PERFECTLY safe" anywhere? No scientist worth their salt would claim anything of the sort.
ReplyDeleteAmong other times, in a debate circa 1980 at my college, where a scientist said the design of nuke plants was resistant to earthquakes, so building on faults was safe. Such a plant was built at Fukishima, Japan, of course, with the scientific community’s concurrence.
ReplyDeleteGene Chiu, in the 1940s, freeways were touted as the answer to traffic congestion.
ReplyDeleteBrian Arbenz It's worth remembering Fukishima's failure are because of the tsunami after the earthquake not the earthquake itself. BTW to me "resistant design" means failure can be contained. It's a risk management term which is never 100%
ReplyDeleteFreeways did relieve congestion for the population density at the time of building. if congestion was truly a priority, it would have been more expensive to purchase homes at further distances rather than cheaper to discourage change in population density. Multi level buildings would include "green floors" with agriculture space and parks. It's a planner choice.
No scientist worth their degree ever says anything is 100%
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