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Article: NATURE'S LESSONS
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 14, 1988
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1988 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Several recent surveys suggest that America is a nation of science
illiterates.
The Public Opinion Laboratory of Northern Illinois University
polled 2,041 adult Americans for the National Science Foundation.
More than half of those surveyed did not know that the Earth goes
around the sun in one year. Twenty percent believed the sun orbits
the Earth. Another 17 percent thought the Earth goes around the sun
once a day.
Asked whether electrons were smaller than atoms, less than half
said yes. Twenty percent said electrons were larger than atoms and 37
percent did not know. One out of five Americans believes sound
travels faster than light.
In another poll conducted by the National Science ...