Most Europeans are interested in science, which they consider to be the most objective, true and valid knowledge because, in addition to revealing fascinating aspects of nature and reducing superstitions, it leads to material progress, well-being and advances in life. Health.
Although scientists are, along with doctors, the professionals who arouse the most social trust, the public shows a remarkable ignorance of some of the great historical figures of science.
These are some of the main results of a BBVA Foundation study on scientific culture in Europe, carried out in Spain, Germany, France and the United Kingdom, which was based on surveys of 1,500 adults per country.
The study reveals that the majority of the population is interested in science and follows scientific information through conventional and digital channels, and that almost half of the population talks about science in their daily conversations.
In countries like Germany, moreover, citizens have reached a high or medium-high degree of familiarity, as is the case in Spain, France and the United Kingdom, and handle a wide range of scientific concepts.
Most citizens understand elementary scientific concepts on topics as diverse as cell division and the origin of the universe or the evolution of the human being, and show a much lower level of understanding about antibiotics, climate change, genes or genetic modification.
Thus, 67% of Spaniards and 74% of all countries attribute great or considerable importance to the fact that a theory is published in a scientific journal, but at the same time, almost half of those surveyed consider that something It is very important when it is reported in a newspaper or on television.
Europeans know the names of some of the great scientists, especially in physics, such as Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie or Galileo Galilei.
Far behind these scientists is Charles Darwin, who reaches a significant percentage of mentions in all countries.
In the United Kingdom and Spain, Stephen Hawking is also mentioned a lot, in which he is perhaps the scientist with the most presence in the ‘media’ in recent decades.
However, a large part of the population is unaware of monumental figures of the 20th century such as Max Planck, Niels Bohr, Francis Crick and James Watson.
Marie Curie is the only woman with a high percentage of mentions in all countries, and in Germany two more women appear after Curie, Maria Goeppert-Mayer (second woman awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics) and the mathematician Emmy Noether, while in the United States Kingdom, citizens also recognize Ada Lovelace.
Those surveyed highly value science because it “reveals fascinating aspects of nature”, because it is “the most reliable and true knowledge” or because it “reduces superstitions and fears from the past”.
Europeans left behind concepts from past decades such as: “we would better live without so much science and technology” or “science destroys people’s moral values”.
On the contrary, they placed great expectations on the contribution of science to the treatment of cancer (76% in Spain and 79% in the other three countries) and in helping to prolong the life and health of people, and to obtain sources of energy clean and plentiful. .
Regarding the control of scientific research, there is a division between the target countries of the study, the United Kingdom and Spain believe that it should be controlled by scientists, while in Germany they prefer that it be controlled by society.
But the majority believe that ethics should impose limits on scientific advances (72% in all countries).
Source: TSF
