In case you may have missed this, the latest Pew Research Center survey related to science has just been published. It is very much in synch with the last Science and Engineering Indicator as far as public opinion and understanding of science goes.
It is also of no surprise that the public like science and regard it as important. However, as I've mentioned earlier, they really don't quite know what science is, why it is important, and how it operates. So the support is based on not on an understanding of science, but rather on its perceived importance. It also means that they can't distinguish between what is a scientifically valid idea versus something that isn't. Look at the glaring discrepancies in the survey on "Differences Between Scientists and Public Go Beyond Evolution".
There's very little that isn't unexpected in the result of this survey. It simply reinforces what I have mentioned all along, and that the "battle" is ongoing and far from being anywhere we can be happy with.
Zz.
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