Age of scientific ignorance

Concerning scientific illiteracy. Downbeat (regarding society) coverage of Natalie Angier's The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science, a pop primer on the scientific ideas any person needs to know. It then turns optimistic when interviewing John Brockman, who started up the previously posted edge.org. Stats claimed in this article:

Forty-two per cent of Americans in a recent survey said they believed that humans had been on Earth since the beginning of time.

and

... in the UK ... 20 per cent of people still believe that the Sun revolves around Earth