The National Science Foundation conducted a study of more than 2,200 participants inside the U.S. and found one rather horrifying data point.

When asked,

Does the Earth go around the sun, or does the sun go around the Earth?

1 in 4 of the participants answered incorrectly. Yup, that says 1 in 4. I wish I was joking.

Samantha Grossman writing for Time could not have summed this up any better,

In other words, a quarter of Americans do not understand one of the most fundamental principles of basic science. So that’s where we are as a society right now.

Couple this with the fact that only 48 percent knew that humans evolved from earlier species of animals, and we can better understand why America is falling so far behind in science.

The full report by the foundation will not be available until after they deliver it to President Obama and Congress, but from what we have seen so far, the results are discouraging.