Carl Sagan is known as astronomer and writer of many popular books. He was professor of astronomy and space science.
He also worked from NASA and gave a big help of few facts about other planets. He not only received medals from NASA, but also was elected positions at such as Astronomy Section of the American Association. Sagan shows his concern about Public Science in America. Source : http://www.carlsagan.com/
Sagan begins the essay with his experience of a talk about science with a guy named William. Through out the essay, he argues about the lack of knowledge about science in general. People only have an interest in science that are shallow and don’t really care or know about “real” science. He argues that science should not be a simple knowledge, but a way of thinking. He points out the status of American science education is bad. Then, He uses statistics to show what is really happening to children who are learning science by the education system of America. He gives few examples like newspaper,TV shows, school and adults to what we actually need to do for ourselves. He wants us to pay attention to provided information and be honest that we do not know about science. He emphasizes that public science should be changed from now on.
I agree with Sagan’s points. I could tell the difference in educations since I experienced education in America and Korea. Also, I admit that it is crucial for us who are not scientists to understand and have an interest in “real” science. The gap of knowledge between scientists and public would be increase rapidly. Therefore, at some point, the development of technology will be stopped and research about scientific research might not be as important as now.
WRT 102.22: Science & Society 