Americans are enthusiastic about the promise of science but lack basic knowledge of it, with one in four unaware that the Earth revolves around the Sun, said a poll out Friday.
The survey included more than 2,200 people in the United States and was conducted by the National Science Foundation.
Nine questions about physical and biological science were on the quiz, and the average score -- 6.5 correct -- was barely a passing grade.
Just 74 percent of respondents knew that the Earth revolved around the Sun, according to the results released at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Chicago.
Fewer than half (48 percent) knew that human beings evolved from earlier species of animals.Wonder why this is?
Copernicus and Darwin are rotating in their graves slowly, slowly... Sic transit gloria, America.
UPDATE: Am we dumber than others? As the NSF report states (p. 7-4),
Levels of factual knowledge in the United States are comparable to those in Europe and are generally higher than levels in countries in other parts of the world.Very comforting.
UPDATE II: For President's Day yesterday, Jimmy Kimmel sent a crew out on Hollywood Blvd. to get reactions on "today's death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt." Hilarity, and stupidity, ensues.
