The dire state of scientific knowledge in America, from an article by Mark Roth in today’s Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:

It’s stupefying that nearly half of Americans don’t think that regular tomatoes have genes!

Although scientific literacy is increasing, it’s still quite low. Roth identifies several causes for this reprehensible state of affairs, but of course we know the real ones. They are:

The stridency of Gnu Atheists, which makes Americans refuse to learn science and flee to religion instead The lack of scientific “rock stars” and cheerleaders to make science sexy for the average American

h/t: Hempenstein