There is a game that has been going on for years to measure the degree of scientific literacy among Italians. It involves saying whether these three statements are true or false: electrons are smaller than atoms; antibiotics kill both viruses and bacteria; the Sun is a planet. In 2007, 38% to 50% of the sample answered correctly. This year the correct answers exceed 60%. That's a comforting statistic, although regret remains that 4 out of 10 people don't know that the Sun is a star and that viruses don't mind antibiotics. In all cases, the scientific culture of Italians has made a lot of progress in the past two decades, and this is the good news brought by the 2024 edition of the Science Technology and Society Yearbook, which contains the aforementioned test and is being published these days by the Mulino. The yearbook is edited by Massimiano Bucchi and Giuseppe Pellegrini of the University of Trento, Andrea Rubin of the University of Ferrara and Barbara Saracino of the University of Bologna. Among the many data they have collected are those on the popularity and reputation of scientists, who turn out to be the most trustworthy figures, far more so than politicians, environmentalists, journalists and other social actors. They are trusted especially by younger people, who of science appreciate the fact that it is ready to recognize mistakes and correct them, a virtue rare among journalists and very rare among politicians.
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