In episode 15, Lauren, Morgan, Rafael, Tom and I discuss the least-stressful job of 2013 (professor!) and scientific literacy. Then, the topic turns to baby carrots and things go completely off the rails. You may never look at your vegetables the same way again.
Carrots… hmmm. “Critical thinking” requires understanding of the nuts and bolts. Without that, don’t expect anything.
I tend to agree. But the question then becomes, what do they need to know? Is there some sort of core set of concepts that would improve science literacy, a sort of “this will get you 80% of the way” set? Do we force everyone to memorize the periodic table?
I recall that John Hawks commented on a similar issue in regards to an interesting Slate piece a while back (Slate seemes to be borked right at this moment, but the piece is worth reading when they’re back up). As scientists, I think we forget that whatever scientific literacy is, we probably acquired it as a byproduct of our education. We also forget that education and intelligence isn’t a cure-all, since even having a Nobel prize is no guarantee that you won’t become a raving quack.
No, bot flies are NOT a viable weight loss solution » Biodiversity in Focus Blog
[...] and believe it’s real, at which point it will only be a matter of time until it’s being indiscriminately shared and “Liked” a bajillion times on Facebook. One reason why this bot fly story may be believable is the fact that there are legitimate medical [...]