One in four Americans don't know...

[steingar]

…that the Earth orbits the Sun, according to this.

In truth, the Earth orbits the Lagrange point between it and Sol, but said point is sufficiently close to Sol as to be indistinguishable from it. At least, that's the version I recall from what little Astronomy I was ever taught.

Still, things are worse than even I thought.

 

[Jim Logajan]

…that the Earth orbits the Sun, according to this.

Here's the chapter in the NSF report from whence the information springs:
http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/content/chapter-7/c07.pdf
To make it easy to reference for this thread's readers, I've made a screen capture of what appears to be the relevant table:

A few personal observations:

• "Is very hot" is a subjective measure, not an objective one. The Earth's center is not very hot relative to, say, the center of the Sun or even the Sun's surface. They should have used an objective measure; e.g. "The center of the Earth is more than ten times hotter than its surface." Or better, some operationally useful fact like "The center of the Earth is hot due to radioactive decay."
• I would have answered False to the continental drift question because the "will continue to move" is false since it is open ended time frame, yet the driver of the motion will eventually cause them to effectively freeze in place, making the full claim false.
• The problem with Earth-Sun orbit question has already been dealt with in other posts.
• Electrons are not "smaller than atoms." The "size" of atoms and electrons depends on what physical aspect is being measured. The person who composed this question has erroneous (pre-quantum) understanding of atomic physics.
• The "big bang theory" is incorrectly summarized by calling it a "huge explosion."
• They likely meant to ask (or should have asked) "It is the father's Y chromosome..." because it is fairly recent knowledge that the single SRY gene is responsible for triggering growth of testes, among other male traits. Previously it was not known how many genes might be involved. Most likely this is another case of sloppy composition of the question by someone who is ignorant of the difference between gene and chromosome.
• Despite the poor composition of the questions and their odd emphasis overall, I think that the U.S. doesn't seem to do all that badly relative to other countries and areas of the world.

 

[Jim Logajan]

The mere 44% of Russians that correctly answered the question about humans arising from earlier species strikes me as odd.

I was not aware of a strong creationist presence in Russia. Is this just a general ignorance on the topic? I would have thought evolution would be well covered in schools there.

The Russian Orthodox Church is a strong proponent of creationism and since the fall of the Soviet Union now counts over 70% of the Russian population as adherents to its teachings. Sources:

"Russia emerges as Europe's most God-believing nation"

"Russia Church wants end to Darwin school "monopoly"

"Sixty-four Percent of Russians Trust Orthodox Church - Poll"

 

[Jim Logajan]

A little over 47% in the US do not know that evolution is a fact.

You've reversed the numbers. 48% agree that evolution is true. 52% disagree or don't know the meaning of evolution. The NSF report (see post 51 for a link to it; page 7-4 of the report) indicated a survey experiment was performed to clarify what some of the survey questions actually revealed, including that probably 24% understand what evolution is but don't believe it is true, while 28% may not understand the theory of evolution. Likewise, 21% seemed to recognize the big bang theory but don't believe it is true. So 60% rather than 39% were familiar with the big bang theory. Here is the relevant quote:
"A survey experiment showed that 48% of respondents said they thought it was true that “human beings, as we know them today, developed from earlier species of animals,” but 72% gave this response when the same statement was prefaced by “according to the theory of evolution.” Similarly, 39% of respondents said that “the universe began with a huge explosion,” but 60% gave this response when the statement was prefaced by “according to astronomers.”"

 

[Jim Logajan]

Our growing science illiterate population does not think government should be spending money on anything, let alone that sciency stuff!

What is odd is that if the above is true, it is somewhat at odds with what U.S. citizens have claimed in the NSF surveys. Quoting again:

"A survey of the United States and 10 European countries, including the 5 largest, suggests that interest in S&T in the United States is somewhat higher than in Europe."
"As in past years, about 4 in 10 Americans said the government was spending “too little on research.” In 2012, about half of respondents said government spending on scientific research was “about right,” and about 1 in 10 said there was too much research spending."

 

[Jim Logajan]

I'm a little skeptical of the 1 in 4 figure quoted. The context in which the question was asked? Not reported and perhaps significant.

Please see post 51 (http://www.pilotsofamerica.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1391352#post1391352), where there is a summary of all the questions and a link to the original NSF report - which I think is worth a scan since it shows U.S. as being more science friendly than claimed by some here.

 

[Jim Logajan]

So you don't have a link? If not, can you at least provide the date the Guardian published it? Otherwise, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Is this the needle you seek?

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2011/nov/24/leaked-climate-science-emails