N.Wells
Posts: 1836
Joined: Oct. 2005
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http://www.uncommondescent.com/intelli....omments
DaveScot | Quote | | The notion that science literacy in the U.S. is substandard is rooted in the results of science surveys that include questions about evolution. |
Science depends heavily on math (and on investment in research and related infrastructure). In an international comparison of precollege students in 2004, American students came in behind 29 countries (Finland, South Korea, Netherlands, Japan, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, New Zealand, Australia, Czech Republic, Iceland, Denmark, France, Sweden, Austria, Germany, Ireland, Slovak Republic, Norway, Luxembourg, Poland, and Spain).
That was in math, which has no questions about evolution. (Data from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv....04.html )
| Quote | | Be that as it may I’m a results oriented guy. Instead of presuming that “poorer” science education leads to poorer scientific output I instead look at what America actually produces in the way of science and engineering. Without question America’s output in science and engineering leads the world. Not just a little but a lot. |
This is like being impressed by the US dominance in the Olympics. That success is based partly on population size (the greater the population, the greater the number of extremely talented people), and partly on investment and training (obviously more of both is better), which is why poor and/or small countries tend to come out near the bottom of these sorts of measures, while large and rich countries (or ones that invest lots of resources anyway) come out near the top.
The following list of countries gives their number of scientific Nobels (excluding Peace and Literature) garnered by natives (not foreigners) since 1960, ranked by that number of Nobels standardized for overall population (by dividing by millions of inhabitants). One can see that the US does well, which is not surprising considering its massive investment in scientific research, but it is not at the head of the list.
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Norway, 6, 1.500
Switzerland, 8, 1.143
Sweden, 9, 1.000
Denmark, 4, 0.800
Austria, 6, 0.750
Hungary, 7, 0.700
UK, 37, 0.627
US, 161, 0.590
Netherlands, 8, 0.500
Germany, 36, 0.439
Australia, 7, 0.368
Canada, 10, 0.323
France, 14, 0.237
Italy, 8, 0.140
Japan, 8, 0.063
Russia, 9, 0.062
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| Quote | | Disbelief in Darwinian evolution, if anything, leads to greater technological achievements not lesser. If it isn’t broken, don’t try to fix it. |
Bullshit. Rejection of evolutionary biology constitutes rejection of science, and leads to the dumbing-down of the populace. IDists are in the process of further breaking the system.
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