The universities of Kansas are clicking their heels. A new poll strengthens their case for more federal and state funding for research.
Ninety-two percent of Kansas residents say it's important for government to invest in basic science research. Ninety-six percent think Kansas should continue to support research efforts at its state universities.
They'd even spend more than at present to support research, according to a poll of 800 Kansans living in 96 of 105 Kansas counties.
For example, 65 percent of those surveyed favor doubling state funding for medical and health research in the next five years.
Research America, based in Alexandria, Virginia, conducted the survey. Its sponsors include Wichita State and Kansas State universities, along with the University of Kansas.
What astonishes me is that faith in research runs deep despite a lack of awareness about the mechanisms or politics behind its funding and despite widespread ignorance of science.
For example, only four in a hundred of those polled knew that the National Institutes of Health funds most of the medical research paid for by taxpayers in this country. And more than 80 percent of Kansans don't know how their senator or representative stands on issues of medical and health research.
Though this poll didn't address the science literacy of Kansans, our lack of literacy as a nation has been documented many times. A recent survey by the National Science Foundation showed that less than 50 percent of the public knows that it takes the Earth a year to go around the sun.
More than 50 percent believe that dinosaurs and people lived on Earth at the same time. Actually, there was a gap of 60 million years.
Only 30 percent can define DNA, the recipe book for life that's found inside of our cells.
More than 87 percent of us would not know what a molecule was if it hit us - and molecules do hit us, by the way, all the time.
The National Science Foundation poll indicates that public interest in science has never been higher. The recent Kansas poll indicates broad public support in Kansas for research.
Nevertheless, we have a long way to go to translate interest and support into literacy. Here are two good arguments for learning more about science.
1. The more we know about science, the better our decision-making processes. Knowing medical research helps us make smart medical decisions. Reading about environmental research can influence our vote. So, too, can an understanding of evolution.
2. The more we know about science, the more interesting life is. It did something to my head last year when I read that scientists had slowed light down to 38 miles an hour. And it does something to my head to know that when I drive across western Kansas, I'm gradually climbing in elevation because as the Rocky Mountains lifted toward the heavens millions of years ago, they dragged western Kansas up with them.
No doubt about it: Public support of research is good news for universities. But public literacy about science would be even better news.
Why? Because it would enable that support to strike a deeper root.
