Americans have always been enthralled with scientific discoveries and engaged in heated debate over the latest issues in scientific fact — our founding fathers being a prime example. It is well-known that Benjamin Franklin made some of the most important scientific discoveries in history, and Thomas Jefferson is quoted as finding science to be his “supreme delight” in life.

Even today, it is evident that people find science immensely intriguing; according to a series of 2009 Pew Research Center surveys, 84 percent of Americans feel that all fields of science are “great for our society” and that scientific research generally makes life better for everyone. In fact, Americans value scientists in the top three of all careers, surpassed only by teachers and members of the military.

But despite our apparent interest in all things science, our knowledge of it has proven to be, well, lacking. In the Pew survey, more than 1,000 Americans were asked 12 questions about basic scientific facts, including questions on causes of global climate change, basic technology, and the difference between electrons and atoms. Only 65 percent of Americans surveyed knew that carbon dioxide was the gas contributing most to global warming, and 54 percent of Americans answered that electrons are larger than atoms.

Half of the Americans surveyed answered confidently that lasers focus sound waves.

Another study from the National Science Foundation revealed that despite having access to the Internet (our number one source of information today), only one in six Americans could identify what exactly the Internet actually is. The study suggested that even knowledge of ‘science’ in general was hard to come by: Only 21 percent of Americans surveyed could explain the basics of the scientific method, half were able to understand the basics of probability, and only about 30 percent knew the process of conducting a simple experiment.

Why does all this matter?

It matters because Americans are facing vital decisions in the field of science and technology with both their voices and their votes. If 48 percent of Americans don’t know what a stem cell is, how can we hope to address stem cell research, a highly controversial — and increasingly important — issue in today’s society?

And how are we to take action against climate change if the majority of Americans aren’t aware that human activity is its number-one cause (despite the fact that 97 percent of scientists agree on anthropogenic causes).

The reports above highlight the clear communication gap between the scientific community and the American public; and sure, it’s important to hold our schools to higher standards in the fields of science, math, and information technology. But a more immediate solution is simple: We need astute science journalists. And we need them now.

The duty of a science journalist is to bridge the gap between scientific professionals and everyday people, who have little or no understanding of current science. A science journalist is extremely specialized in his or her field, and rightly so, as it is his or her task, according to the Media for Science Forum, to be “the translator, … someone with a well-practiced grasp of language … who is smart enough to not only understand the concepts and write about them for a lay audience, but also to ask the right questions.”

But today’s science journalists are the first being cut from the payroll with the decline of for-profit journalism and print media; this means that it’s up to general interest journalists to cover the most technical issues in science and relay complex information with the potential to influence public opinion, no matter how factually accurate it is. In fact, in the past 20 years, with our country’s diminishing population of science journalists, twenty-one percent of our nation’s scientists identify education through public communication as a “significant failure.”

The need for specialized, dedicated science journalists is increasingly important, because as crucial issues present themselves — from the promise of an AIDS-free generation, to stem cell research — we need to be armed with knowledge. An understanding of scientific issues has become crucial in the participation of today’s politics — and it drives the economy of both industrialized and developing economies. The time has come for decisions to be made on scientific issues from cloning to climate change, and if people aren’t able to understand the basics, they will make the wrong decisions. Without educators and science journalists communicating scientific information to the American public both accurately and clearly, we may soon be making policy changes in blind ignorance — with both our livelihoods and lives at stake.

——————————————————————————————-

Elaine Godfrey is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication and global resource systems from Burlington, Iowa.