Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future in Atheists and Skeptics

Jul 02, 2010 John rated it it was ok

The subtitle of this book is something of a misnomer: the authors (rightly, in my opinion) take it for granted that the high (and, arguably, rising) rate of scientific illiteracy -- among the public in general but most importantly among politicians -- is damaging our society and, through the corresponding muddled thinking about such matters as AGW, threatening our future. Really, the subject of their book is what can be done to cure, or at least ameliorate the effects of, this dire situation.

W The subtitle of this book is something of a misnomer: the authors (rightly, in my opinion) take it for granted that the high (and, arguably, rising) rate of scientific illiteracy -- among the public in general but most importantly among politicians -- is damaging our society and, through the corresponding muddled thinking about such matters as AGW, threatening our future. Really, the subject of their book is what can be done to cure, or at least ameliorate the effects of, this dire situation.

While they point at some of the usual culprits as having brought us to where we are, over and over again they hammer home their point that really the fault is of scientists themselves, who have failed to take seriously the importance of communicating scientific discovery, and its importance, to politicians and the public. If only scientists would make a bit more effort in this regard, Mooney and Kirshenbaum appear to be saying, our problems would be solved.

I don't buy all of this. Yes, there are plenty of cases of specialists being tone deaf to the public -- a recent case involved the CRU's head Phil Jones saying in a BBC interview that the rise in global temperatures during the 1990s was "statistically insignificant" (he meant that, though the figures showed a rise, the time period was simply too short to draw firm conclusions; add in the 2000s, thereby doubling the time period, and the trend was undeniable), blithely unaware that this expression was opaque to the scientifically illiterate and would thus be reported as CLIMATE CHIEF SAYS WARMING HAS STOPPED. But for every top-notch frontline scientist who just happens to be a blithering idiot when it comes to communicating with the public, there are plenty who're only too eager to make the effort, and many of these are actually good at it. My house is packed with first-rate popularizations of science done by scientists (for all I know, some may use ghostwriters, but this doesn't affect the overall case). And those are only the lucky few whose works make it into print. Anyone who works in publishing will tell you world is full of good scientists who want to write books for the popular market. We have to remember that, leaving aside the specialist and semi-specialist presses, most proposed book projects will be judged not by folk with a science background but by folk whose qualifications are likely to be in the arts/humanities or in business. This means that, however worthy a science popularization might be (and, in fact, however big the potential public demand for it might be), it has a steeper mountain to climb than, say, a new Hollywood bio. In other words, to belabour scientists for a perceived lack of effort is to ignore the fact that others have vital and often determining roles in the result of any effort the scientists make.

Mooney's solo The Republican War on Science was a salutary work, one that every responsible citizen should read, and I was expecting something similarly forceful here. In the event, I kept wondering if someone had told the authors they should maintain that kind of journalistic "balance" which is so bedeviling our public discourse at the moment. There's lots of good stuff in this short book, but overall I was disappointed. ...more

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Mar 28, 2011 Frank Jude rated it liked it

Shelves: general-science

When 46% of Americans believe the earth is less than 10,000 years old, and for every five hours of Cable News, one minute is devoted to science, you know we've got a serious problem! Mooney and Kirshenbaum offer the thought-provoking -- and quite reasonable -- thesis that at least some of the blame for this situation are scientists themselves and the 'scientific culture' that has alienated itself from the other 'cultures' including politics.

They argue that the way scientists are taught needs to ...more

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Jul 10, 2009 Tracy Black rated it it was ok

First, the subtitle, "How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future", is very misleading. It was not at all about scientific illiteracy. It focused entirely on America's view of science and scientists, i.e. how important it is to us, our level of trust of scientists, and our interest in staying up to date. Not what I expected, but still interesting.
The 2 stars is because most of the book focused on the scientist's inablility to communicate with politicians and the general public. I strongly dis ...more

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Aug 16, 2009 Eric Michael rated it it was ok

Some useful elements but unfortunately fails in providing solutions. Some parts are outright ridiculous, such as the idea that scientists should somehow call for a democratic referendum on whether Pluto is a planet or not and their consistent theme that scientists should be monolithic in their approach to the religious right. On this latter topic they seem to have more of an ax to grind against certain bloggers than anything else.

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