Exactly, just like how there's only 9 planets in the solar system.
Wait... ;)
cardboard adolescent
09-26-2010 03:35 PM
^^ i think that's the real issue right there. first they tell us that there's no such thing as a brontosaurus, and then they tell us that pluto isn't a planet. i think after those two let-downs most americans have just decided "fuck scientists."
Dr.Seussicide
09-26-2010 03:42 PM
:laughing:
And the appendix has a purpose... They're toying with us.
chiron
09-26-2010 11:17 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by Spike*Spiegel
(Post 936381)
The point is that it's a matter of understanding basic knowledge.. I guess you fall into the majority.
More like accepting it, not that there is anything wrong with doing that.
CanwllCorfe
09-27-2010 12:21 AM
ivenever been into none of that macrology and sizemology stuff anyway, who need it i say
Scarlett O'Hara
09-27-2010 12:24 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by chiron
(Post 936350)
no idea what you are talking about but I don't think knowing how much time the earth takes to go around the sun has ever had any positive influence at all in my life. plus the sun goes around the earth pretty much every day, isn't that more relevant.
Originally Posted by TheBig3KilledMyRainDog
(Post 936231)
Spaghetti-o's.
I can't speak to these results. I come from a generally informed part of America, and Im a Geophicalist.
Is that why you used an apostrophe in "Spaghetti-o's" when it wasn't possessive? ;)
VEGANGELICA
09-27-2010 04:41 AM
Quote:
Originally Posted by LoathsomePete
(Post 936241)
I think the solution needs more people orientated science teachers in elementary, middle, and high school. There's a saying that goes that to every stereotype there can be found a little truth, and that does not change for the stereotypical scientist.
I agree, Pete...sometimes teachers do suck the life out of science and scare people away, I fear.
I wish Carl Sagan hadn't died! He was always so engaging and engaged in science. A poet-scientist. I've heard of some religious people in the U.S. calling him "Carl Satan" since he promoted actual understanding of the physical universe rather than subscribing to superstitions:
Quote:
Originally Posted by cardboard adolescent
(Post 936403)
^^ i think that's the real issue right there. first they tell us that there's no such thing as a brontosaurus, and then they tell us that pluto isn't a planet. i think after those two let-downs most americans have just decided "fuck scientists."
I remember my shock several years ago when I learned that my old friend the brontosaurus was now an apatosaurus!
And then I was shocked to learn that the official name apatosaurus has been official since 1903. So, in the U.S. it only took...107 years...for this information to trickle down to me. :rolleyes: This poor and slow dissemination of knowledge may explain why people here don't know about that sun thingy and what a year is.
Quote:
In 1903, Elmer Riggs pointed out that Brontosaurus excelsus was in fact so similar to Apatosaurus ajax that it belonged in the same genus, which Riggs re-classified as Apatosaurus excelsus. According to the rules of the ICZN (which governs the scientific names of animals), the name Apatosaurus, having been published first, had priority as the official name; Brontosaurus was a junior synonym and therefore discarded from formal use.
The length of time taken for Marsh's misclassification to be brought to public notice meant that the name Brontosaurus, associated as it was with one of the largest dinosaurs, became so famous that it persisted long after the name had officially been abandoned in scientific use. Apatosaurus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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.
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. :yikes::yikes:
I find that second paragraph particularly disturbing.
FETCHER.
09-27-2010 11:54 AM
If someone doesn't have a slight idea which each of the things in that second paragraph is. Theyre a ****ing moron.
