Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Referral: In Science We Trust

 

 


# 4925

 

 

Scientific American, in partnership with Nature, have conducted a fascinating poll of their (largely science literate) readers on how much they trust what scientists say about different topics.

 

Given the readership of these two publications, it isn’t terribly surprising that most tend to find modern science reasonably trustworthy . . .  the surprises come when you drill down into the data and see how different regions view scientific opinions on different topics.

 

Topics like the safety of nuclear energy, GM (genetically modified) crops, nanotechnology, and yes . . . even pandemics.

 

Luckily, this data isn’t presented in dull, hard-to-decipher table form.  The authors have put together numerous graphic representations of the results.

 

I’ll not give any of this away and spoil it. Instead, I’ll simply give you the link to follow and read it yourself.

 

In Science We Trust: Poll Results on How You Feel about Science

Our Web survey of readers suggests that the scientifically literate public still trusts its experts—with some important caveats

 

 

Given the level of anti-science hysteria on the Internet, I’ve little doubt that a poll of the general public would produce somewhat less reassuring data for the world’s scientists.

 

Nevertheless, I  found this to be an extremely interesting survey.


Highly recommended.