It is interesting that in the US and many other Western countries (at least English speaking countries) the main recruitment pools for entering politics are the legal profession, and business, while in China it is often engineering and science. As the big issues that face us are increasingly based on technology and science, the low scientific literacy of North American politicos is going to be an increasing problem. As per Marcia’s remarks, it is so important to have good science education is schools. Young kids ask very good science-related questions, like (from my 7 year niece), “why is the earth round?” “What made the rings of Saturn”; and “what is gravity?” I suspect that almost all kids are natural scientists, but this gets knocked out of them by an indifference to science by society at large, and as they get older, by peer pressure not to look ‘nerdy.” Perhaps part of the problem is that science-based professionals (except in Medicine) allow themselves to play second-fiddle in terms of pay scales and public awareness of their role to other professions.