Per Hoel's Profile

and many were stories of genuine embarrassment and resentment.

A parent telling a child to ignore the evidence against Santa's existence encourages the child to think that believing whatever one wants is more important than weighing evidence and believing the truth.

To achieve anything similar in the United States, however, would require a virtual revolution in how things work. Our system of government regulations isn’t really what we think of as regulation at all. Rather, it throws up a facade of rules, which corporations walk right through. And no wonder, since although the regulations are supposed to be arrived at independently and designed for the public good, corporations have long had a hand in writing them, as well, thanks to the power of lobbying, campaign contributions, and the revolving door between business and government.

It's not nationalistic or religionistic. It's just a tree, and a tree can't exclude anyone.

Instead, journalists, and their audience, should look at it as a simple practical question: as it stands today, if you pay less, eventually you will get less.

"There's something about the human mind that wants to have a sustained story-line," she said, "and we're not getting that."

Angier aims to help readers see why even more complicated science matters. "One of the things I try to do when writing about science," she said, "is make it seem like it's part of your life already by making things into characters and protagonists, even if they're just molecules."

Only members of the military and teachers are more likely to be viewed as contributing a lot to society’s well-being.

While the public holds scientists in high regard, many scientists offer unfavorable, if not critical, assessments of the public’s knowledge and expectations.