Indeed - and that's why US universities are having to rely more and more on overseas students. America used to respect scientists - until the scientists started telling them things they didn't want to hear. Now scientists are branded as elitist and arrogant. Many domestic students in the US and Australia are raised to believe that academics are stuffy and boring and useless and sexual unattractive. They are taught to admire rap stars and sports stars and movie celebrities. They are taught to value money over knowledge. In places like China and India, however, their culture tells them that being a scholar is respectable, that there's more to respect than money and that knowledge for the sake of knowledge is a worthwhile pursuit. Is it really so strange that nearly half the staff/students in all the biology labs that I've worked in are now Chinese or Japanese or Indian? Is it any surprise that nearly half the names attached to half the papers in journals like Nature or JBC are of asian origin? No. America USED to value science and learning. Being smart was valued. Now, in the US, and indeed, Australia, it no longer is, despite the fact that science and mathematics are what BUILT those nations to their current state. I find it strange that in a nation so absolutely dependent on technology for waging warfare, science and mathematics are derided so thoroughly.
And to be honest, the problem is partially caused by scientists themselves. We don't do a good enough job communicating to the public the importance of our research. Modern science is baffling, jargon filled and takes years and years of studying to gain even a basic grasp of fundamental concepts. A lot of people don't have the time to learn science, because they have jobs and families and hobbies and all that stuff.
So it is very difficult to communicate to the general public. It's not their fault - they don't have the time or the inclination to master a subject. Scientists just have to do a better job at communicating our worth to the public.
There's also a strong strain of anti-intellectualism that has developed in the US. In Australia, it's commonly referred to as "tall poppy syndrome". Simply put, a lot of students resent academics for doing well. They view the scientists and the academics with mistrust and suspicion, because they can seemingly do things others can't (this isn't true, by the way - being a scientist requires a mindset and determination. You don't have to be a super genius to be a scientist. With enough effort, most people could learn science).
Throughout the US, there is a recurring theme running through a lot of heads: "What, you think you know better than me!?" In the US, people are taught that "everyone's opinions are equal". That's nonsense - the more informed opinion is usually better, but people don't want to be told that. People feel resentment when they are told that they are ignorant on certain matters. When a scientist explains why their mythology or folk beliefs are incorrect, they feel (often correctly) that they are being "talked down to" by the "eggheads".
So, how to fix the negative image that scientists have created for themselves?:
Scientists need to explain their position more clearly - they need to make it clear that being ignorant is not the same thing as being stupid, but that being ignorant means that the populace doesn't have the knowledge to address complex issues. Everyone is ignorant of something, and we need to make it clear to the general public that we don't think they are stupid just because they haven't invested 4 or more years of their life in a science degree. We need to be honest and tell them when they are wrong, but we also need to adopt a more friendly approach when telling them that they are wrong. As tempting as it might be, we shouldn't assume that they are idiots for "not getting us", rather, we should examine how we could explain our positions and ideas in such a way as to enable them to understand us. Scientists have a habit of forgetting how hard it was to learn the stuff they know and how hard it is for the general public, most of whom haven't been to university, to understand the jargon.
We also need to stop treating the general public like children. Often, scientists won't even bother speaking to the public on the assumption that "they just wouldn't understand". In my experience, however, people generally will if you find a clever way of explaining it. Sure, you might not be able to easily explain very complex scientific theories to a person, but you can general get the gist of a lot of it across. We need to make it clear to the public that we don't think they are stupid just because they might not know what dsRNA is or what how a DNA retrovirus functions. Ignorance is NOT stupidity, and ignorance is nothing to be ashamed of. We're all ignorant of something. I don't know how to fire a gun or how to drive a tank. Am I stupid? I can't cook well or grow my own crops. I'm totally ignorant about many things, like farming, sowing or engineering. But that doesn't mean I'm stupid.
But it's not entirely our fault either. The public have caused a lot of problems too. In return for scientists being more humble, here's what I want the public to realize (and maybe we need to do a better job of explaining it):
1) The world is complex. It's INCREDIBLY complex. I know only a little physics, but know quite a bit of chemistry and biology - and the sheer complexity of biological systems is enough to blow your mind. The way DNA unravels in order to transcription to occur, the way cellular receptors phosphorylate proteins in signalling chains, the way cytokines and other molecules interact with the nucleus to suppress or upregulate gene expression - you're talking about hundreds of thousands, it not millions of specialize proteins working in an unbelievably small space amongst a cytoskeleton structure of amazing complexity. There is SO MUCH about the cell that the average person has no idea about. Scientists spend years and years and years and years learning about these systems. It's a never ending process - you NEVER stop learning new things in science, EVER. No one knows everything - that's how complex the fields are. You can spend your entire life just trying to learn one more function of one more gene - and there are tens of thousands of genes, which can produce, with alternative splicing, a huge array of RNA transcripts, creating a huge amount of different proteins. There's a lot of information out there. I know scientists shouldn't pretend to be know-it-alls, but it galls me when you have members of the public assume that they know it all themselves.
2) Please learn about the subject before criticizing it. You won't believe the amount of fundamentalist christians/muslims/jews/hindus I've run into who say "evolution is impossible", who haven't even READ ONE TEXTBOOK on evolution! They criticize it, without understanding a single thing about it. Please don't do this. If you don't know what you are talking about, don't criticize it. Read a proper book on evolutionary theory BEFORE clearing "it's impossible", just because a website told you it was.
3) Please understand that science is a WORK IN PROGRESS. As a famous comedian once said: "scientists know they don't know everything! If they thought they knew everything, they'd stop!". Science can't explain everything, but that is not a reason to think that "Science will never explain X or Y or Z". A long time ago scientists (who were called natural philosophers) couldn't explain what lightning was. Religious people said "Aha! You can't say what lightning is! It's obviously a divine manifestation of the powers of God!". But with a bit of cleverness and hardwork and time, we now CAN explain what lightning is (it's an atmospheric electrical discharge). A long time ago people said "aha! you'll NEVER be able to explain how a baby forms in the womb! It's a divine miracle!" but now, with modern molecular biology, we CAN explain how a baby forms in the womb.
So that's the deal:
1) Scientists should be less arrogant, but the public needs to realize that we do know what we're talking about. The wealth of technology surrounding you proves this
2) Ignorance is NOT stupidity. Everyone is ignorant about something and it's not shameful to admit you don't know much about a subject.
3) If the US wants to retain it's technological edge, it must learn to respect academics more. The US military is powerful because of it's Tomahawk Missiles, Stealth Bombers, Daisy Cutter bombs, M1A2 chobham armour and nuclear bombs. Guess who built those things? Scientists. If you want your army to remain powerful, you need to cultivate the best scientific minds, otherwise other countries will start inventing better weapons than you.
