What kind of science do you wish people understood? What science do people need to understand in order to make the world a better place?
Obviously Epidemiology & the spread of infectious diseases, ecology, and climate science are right up there.
I'd add food science - by which I mean how food cooks, how/when bacteria grow in food, what happens to different foods when you refrigerate or freeze them, or expose them to oxygen, and nutritrion,
as well as health - what does your body need to be healthy, how do you know when you're getting sick, what do we know and not know about how the body works.
I'd add the psychology of marketing, of sleep, and of learning.
Also the physics of motion - stopping distance, friction, water, etc.
@lindamciver basic statistics and probability. Nothing complicated, just enough to be able to judge risk more rationally, to judge the significance of rare events, basics of experiment design so they can better understand how much weight to give to anecdotal stories about home remedies, crime rates, and all the other things people discuss at length in their neighborhood whatsapp groups.
@lindamciver Not science, but simply the ability to discern reputable from disreputable sources, and literally any understanding of nuance.
Decades ago, I remember a "learn how to research" unit in high school where we learned about primary vs. secondary sources, where to find reliable information online and how to identify bias. It's second nature to me now and even though I know how people get manipulated and misled, I'm still flabbergasted at how rare that knowledge seems to be.
@lindamciver Ecology. We're so reckless with our environment and don't understand the value of all of it. We're like a patient on life support that is stripping the wires out to sell as scrap metal.
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