US government asks science questions to test public knowledge: Here's how India did

The US government conducts a survey every two years to try and understand how much the general public knows about science and technology. Here are the most recent results of the survey.

classroom — How good is your basic understanding of science?Pexels

Once every two years, the National Science Foundation (NSF), a US government organisation carries out a survey to gauge basic science knowledge of US citizens. They have released their latest report now. The survey also includes a few other countries, while not based on the same year as the US's, it still offers a good view of how most countries are doing when it comes to their grasp of the world around them.

"As economies worldwide grow increasingly knowledge-intensive and interdependent, capacity for innovation becomes ever more critical," the NSF says in its latest report, titled "Science & Engineering Indicators 2018" according to Business Insider.

What came of the report? This survey involved several countries including United States, Canada, China, EU, India, Israel, Japan, Malaysia, Russia, South Korea, and Switzerland. From the looks of it, the general public's knowledge about basic scientific facts is... fairly OK, according to the report. People have, in general woken up climate change and are starting to see humanity's role in it.

The trust that people have towards science and scientists has also risen over time. In fact the study has gone to show that people trust scientists more than any other government role, apart from the armed forces.

Here are the "10 simple questions" that the US government used to test people's understanding of scientific facts. Test yourself, answers are at the bottom of this article.

True or False: The centre of the Earth is very hot
True or False: The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move
Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?
True or False: All radioactivity is man-made
True or False: Electrons are smaller than atoms
True or False: The universe began with a huge explosion
True or False: It is the father's gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl
True or False: Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria
True or False: Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals

India's performance in this survey was not exactly bad, but was still low. India got an average score of 45, which is considerably lower than the top three- Canada (72), Israel (71), and, the EU (63). The country only scored more than China (40), and Russia (33).

The results:

Question	United States	Canada	China	EU	India	Israel	Japan	Malaysia	Russia	South Korea	Switzerland
The center of the Earth is very hot.	85	93	47	86	57	86	84	75	NA	87	NA
The continents have been moving their location for millions of years and will continue to move.	81	91	51	87	32	86	89	62	40	87	80
Does the Earth go around the Sun, or does the Sun go around the Earth?	73	87	NA	66	70	86	NA	85	NA	86	NA
All radioactivity is man-made.	70	72	41	59	NA	76	64	20	35	48	NA
Electrons are smaller than atoms.	48	58	22	46	30	60	28	35	44	46	39
Lasers work by focusing sound waves.	45	53	19	47	NA	67	26	30	24	31	NA
The universe began with a huge explosion.	39	68	NA	NA	34	64	NA	NA	35	67	NA
It is the father's gene that decides whether the baby is a boy or a girl	59	NA	49	64	38	72	26	45	22	59	60
Antibiotics kill viruses as well as bacteria	51	53	24	46	39	53	28	16	18	30	56
Human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals	52	74	68	70	56	63	78	NA	44	64	NA
Average scores	60.3	72	40	63	45	71	53	46.0	33	61	59