The National Science Board issued Science and Engineering Indicators (SEI) on Tuesday that show while support for federal research investment is a historically high levels, other kinds of federal spending generates even stronger support in the United States.
"Support for increased spending is greater in numerous program areas, including education (73 percent), health care (72 percent), assistance to the poor (68 percent), environmental protection (67 percent), and Social Security (61 percent)," the report explains.
"Scientific research ranks about on a par with mass transit (38 percent) and well ahead of space exploration (14 percent) and assistance to foreign countries (10 percent) in the proportion of the U.S. population favoring increased spending.”
The SEI report also reveals television and the Internet are Americans’primary sources of science and technology information. While the Internet is favored below TV for info, "to learn about specific scientific issues, more than half of Americans choose the Internet as their main information source."
Regarding environmental quality here on Earth, the report observes that in 2007, 43 percent of Americans expressed "strong concern" about the environment, up from 35 percent in 2005. However, concern about the environment ranks somewhere in the middle among 12 issues. Global warming has recently become more prominent among environmental issues of concern to the public, the report states, although it still ranks eighth among 10 issues.
The Science and Engineering Indicators 2008 is prepared by the National Science Foundation's Division of Science Resources Statistics on behalf of the National Science Board.
Source:Xinhua
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