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Public Understanding of Science Public understanding of science at the crossroads Steve Miller Public Understanding of Science 2001; 10; 115 DOI: 10.1088/0963-6625/10/1/308 The online version of this article can be found at: /cgi/content/abstract/10/1/115 Published by: Additional services and information for Public Understanding of Science can be found at: Email Alerts: /cgi/alerts Subscriptions: /subscriptions Reprints: /journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav Downloaded from by Monina Escalada on October 3, 2009 INSTITUTE OF PHYSICS PUBLISHING PUBLIC UNDERSTANDING OF SCIENCE Public Understand. Sci. 10 (2001) 115–120 /Journals/pu PII: S0963-6625(01)20234-3 CRITIQUES AND CONTENTIONS Public understanding of science at the crossroads Steve Miller With the publication of the House of Lords report “Science and Society” in the spring of 2000, public understanding of science in the United Kingdom is now at something of a crossroads. After well over a decade of efforts to improve what has come to be known as “scientific literacy” among the general population— led by such organizations as the Committee on Public Understanding of Science (CoPUS)—surveys suggest that little has been achieved. But how are we now to interpret this? Is it a failure by the scientific community to “get their message across?” Is the pu