Part of the problem in engaging the general public about science is widespread scientific illiteracy. It doesn’t help when the UK Government doesn’t seem to have a clue what science is! According to this report
The Government now includes as “science”, courses such as nutrition and complementary medicine, geography studies, sports science, nursing and psychology, even though in dozens of universities it is classed as an arts degree.
So we’ve come down to making up numbers as we go along? If that wasn’t bad enough, what, we wonder, counts as being scientifically literate at the age of 16 in the UK?
One question in a recent science paper asked “why is wireless technology useful?” – the correct answer was: “no wiring is needed”.