DNA

DZ has a friend who used to live in the USA. The family moved from there to the UK some years ago for the sole reason that they felt the standard of education in the states was very poor and they wanted their children to get something better. I remember at the time being very surprised and doubtful that things could be so bad over there that they would undergo such disruption.

After all, the USA is the most technologically advanced country in the world isn't it? Surely that speaks of a very high level of scientific education. After all, they sent men to the moon.

But of course many Americans will now assert that that was all untrue, which starts to make you wonder about their intellectual prowess. And telling this guy that he's a liar and a coward is particularly stupid.

But perhaps a good illustration of the startlingly poor level of scientific education of Americans is this study, which indicates that 80% of Americans have no idea what DNA is, and want foods containing it to carry a warning label! And it seems this level of ignorance goes all the way to the top

To be fair there is no similar study for the UK population so I don't know if we would be any better. And a lot of bizarre pseudo scientific beliefs do seem to be creeping in here too. Our own government has precious little in the way of scientifically literate people. Out of 650 MPs, only 25 have a science degree. The last PM with a science degree was Margaret Thatcher. In addition the Health and Science committee of the House of Commons for many years has had this guy on it.

Perhaps we are getting close to this a lot sooner than we thought.

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