Astounding science

An amazing statistic, isn't it? But is it real?

 

I searched and found:

On a quiz about the basic science behind GM technology, 87 percent of Americans could not score a passing grade. Seven in ten (70%) don't believe it is possible to transfer animal genes into plants, six in ten (60%) don't realize that ordinary tomatoes contain genes, and more than half (58%) believe that tomatoes modified with genes from a catfish would probably taste fishy. Fewer than half (45%) understand that eating a genetically modified fruit would not cause their own genes to become modified.

 

Searching some more, I found:

* 40% of respondents falsely thought that tomatoes genetically modified with

genes from catfish would taste "fishy";

* 52% wrongly thought that genetically modified foods are created using

radiation to create genetic mutations;

* 31% mistakenly believed that eating genetically modified fruit could

modify a person's genes;

* 43% falsely asserted that ordinary tomatoes don't contain genes, only

those that are genetically modified have genes.

 

Further searches yielded various other numbers for the purported outcome of that poll (from 2005), sometimes claiming how many people got it right, sometimes how many got it wrong.

 

Yes, people are ignorant of science basics... but also of the basics of reporting and interpreting results.

Done