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    Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future

    Unscientific America: How Scientific Illiteracy Threatens our Future

    3.3 12

    by Chris Mooney, Sheril Kirshenbaum


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    $9.99

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      ISBN-13: 9780786744558
    • Publisher: Basic Books
    • Publication date: 07/14/2009
    • Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
    • Format: eBook
    • Pages: 224
    • Sales rank: 379,733
    • File size: 327 KB
    • Age Range: 13 - 18 Years

    Chris Mooney is the author of The Republican War on Science and Storm World. A Knight fellow in science journalism at MIT, he contributes to many publications, including Mother Jones, Wired, the Boston Globe, and Slate. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

    Sheril Kirshenbaum is Associate in Research for Ocean and Coastal Policy at Duke University's Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions. She lives in Durham, North Carolina.

    Table of Contents

    Preface to the Paperback Edition ix

    From a Scientist and a Writer xvii

    1 Why Pluto Matters 1

    2 Rethinking the Problem of Scientific Illiteracy 13

    Part I The Rise and Cultural Decline of American Science

    3 From Sputnik to Sagan 25

    4 Third Culture, or Nerd Culture? 41

    Part II Different Rifts, Still Divided

    5 Science Escape 2008 53

    6 Unpopular Science 67

    7 Hollywood and the Mad Scientists 81

    8 Bruising Their Religion 95

    Part III The Future in our Bones

    9 The Bloggers Cannot Save Us 109

    10 Is Our Scientists Learning? 117

    Conclusion: A New Mission for American Science 127

    Notes 133

    Index 199

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    Climate change, the energy crisis, nuclear proliferation—many of the most urgent problems of the twenty-first century require scientific solutions, yet America is paying less and less attention to scientists. For every five hours of cable news, less than one minute is devoted to science, and the number of newspapers with science sections has shrunk from ninety-five to thirty-three in the last twenty years. In Unscientific America, journalist and best-selling author Chris Mooney and scientist Sheril Kirshenbaum explain this dangerous state of affairs, proposing a broad array of initiatives that could reverse the current trend.

    An impassioned call to arms, Unscientific America exhorts Americans to reintegrate science into public discourse—before it is too late.

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    With climate change, the energy crisis, deadly pollutants, and ever-diminishing resources, science matters more today than ever before, but try explaining that to the scientifically illiterate American public. According to the authors of this spirited manifesto, the chasm between new-millennium science and general scientific knowledge is huge and growing, thanks to narrow corporate interests, a weak education system, science-challenged politicians, and a detached, hyper-specialized scientific community. And don't expect the media to improve this dire situation: For every five hours of cable news, less than one minute is devoted to science. Unscientific America is a startling wake-up call for a nation squandering its future.
    Publishers Weekly
    Mooney, author of the bestselling The Republican War on Science, and Kirshenbaum, a marine scientist at Duke and former congressional science fellow, argue that the public ruckus caused when astronomers stripped Pluto of its planetary status demonstrates the disconnect between scientists and the general public, who share only a sense of mutual distrust. The authors place the blame for this squarely on both sides, as well as on the media (TV shows that misrepresent medical science and films that portray scientists as evil or nerdy), and plead for an improved level of discourse. But their repeated assertion that science and religion are compatible will not convince anyone who believes otherwise. Mooney showed his ideological colors in The Republican War on Science, and with their attacks on President Bush, he and his coauthor can't be accused of being nonpartisan here, despite their call for less partisan, nonideological debate. Some readers may also balk at paying $25 for a book nearly a third of which consists of notes and documentation. Nevertheless, Mooney and Kirshenbaum make valid arguments that can only help to further the public debate about these important issues. (July)

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    From the Publisher
    The Durham Herald Sun
    “Non-scientists, and that includes most of us who work for newspapers or other media, owe it to themselves to read at least one book this year about the scientific issues facing the world. My pick is Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum's Unscientific America.”

    Buffalo News
    “[An] important book”

    NSTA Recommends
    “A tour-de-force…engaging…this book should find readership beyond just science students to all students interested, or becoming interested, in current issues important to politics, education, and the general state of our nation."

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