Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum bemoan the status of science in American culture:

What do we learn from this curriculum about science? Well, just ask America’s kids. Researchers who have studied the stereotypical views of scientists held by American schoolchildren report that when they encounter real-life scientists who visit their classroom, the kids think someone’s pulling their leg, because the scientists aren’t anything like the big-screen version — mean, male, gray haired and mad. As one study author explained to the magazine Nature: “They might say the person was too ‘normal’ or too good-looking to be a scientist. The most heart-breaking thing is when they say, ‘I didn’t think he was real because he seemed to care about us.’”

To some extent these depictions may be changing today, as Hollywood appears to be finding a new interest in science. Yet with such images having been predominant for so long, is it any surprise that most Americans can’t name a scientific role model? And that those who can tend to name people like Bill Gates, Al Gore and Albert Einstein, who are either not scientists or not alive?

Read the whole thing.

For similar musings check out:

To Be An American: Part Two - The Scientists
Why American Schools Are Failing
The Age of Immediacy