Friday, April 09, 2010

National Science Board Removes Evolution/Big Bang Survery Results

What happened to evolution at the NSB? "A section describing survey results about the American public's beliefs about evolution and the Big Bang was removed from the 2010 edition of Science and Engineering Indicators. According to a post on the AAAS's Science Insider blog (April 8, 2010) and a subsequent report in Science (April 9, 2010; subscription required), although survey results about evolution and the Big Bang have regularly appeared in the National Science Board's Science and Engineering Indicators, its biennial compilation of global data about science, engineering, and technology, they were absent from the 2010 edition."

Joshua Rosenau has a good post about this with some more details, NSF governing board spikes evolution from science literacy report.

Science magazine says: "Science has obtained a copy of the deleted text, which does not differ substantially from what has appeared in previous Indicators. The two questions (see graphic) have been part of an NSF-funded survey on scientific understanding and attitudes toward science since 1983. The deleted section notes that the 45% of Americans who answered "true" to the statement: "Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals" is similar to the percentage in previous years and much lower than in Japan (78%), Europe (70%), China (69%), and South Korea (64%). A similar gap exists for the response to the statement: "The universe began with a big explosion," with which only 33% of Americans agreed."

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