<Which brings up another question: Since most Americans aren’t scientists, why should anybody care how they do in a survey like this? No one should.

Just because one is ignorant to certain scientific terms doesn’t mean that someone is dumb and I believe these surveys don’t reflect the true dynamics of each countries cultural and educational differences.

If I walked up to you and asked you to define for me what longitudinal phase velocity or nondegenerate two-wave mixing is you probably wouldn’t have the slightest idea of what I was talking about, I wouldn’t expect you to and I wouldn’t think you were a dumb ass if you didn’t know.

Asking a Adult that has been out of school for years or doesn’t work in a field that requires knowing what DNA means and if a electron is smaller than an atom makes it a trivial question. Many of these people probably live day to day busting their butts to hold a job and have absolutely no reason to care what DNA means and the what the scientific process is since knowing has no relativity to their lives and survival.