Remember the school bully? In any verbal dispute he had a very limited supply of two- or three-word comebacks: “Oh, yeah?” “Nuh-uh!” “I’ll kill you.” Well, he’s back and he’s us.

As the world competes to see who’s going to succeed in our knowledge-based economy, a substantial number of folks on my side of the globe cling to the force of their brawn rather than the power of knowledge that drives innovation, invention, and creativity.

The scientific literacy of American adults is dismally low, according to a national survey commissioned by the California Academy of Sciences. Here’s a sample of the results:

• Only 53% of adults know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun.
• Only 59% of adults know that the earliest humans and dinosaurs did not live at the same time.
• Only 47% of adults can roughly approximate the percent of the Earth’s surface that is covered with water.
• Only 21% of adults answered all three questions correctly.

I know you thought those were easy. So here’s a more difficult one: What percent of our planet’s water is fresh water?

Even if you don’t know that it’s only 3%, you appreciate the fact that it matters. Voting members of representative governments are derelict in their duty as citizens if they don’t keep themselves on top of the way our world works. We can’t invent and innovate if we tell our leaders to halt necessary research in favor of fantasy-based initiatives.

But then maybe headlines like the ones below make us wonder what we’re paying for when our governments do sponsor scientific research.

• Lifetime of Aggressiveness Leads to Negative Outcomes
• School Kids Skipping Breakfast Are Missing Healthy Brain Fuel
• Screaming Hoops Fans at Risk for Vocal Problems
• Children Who Are Dissatisfied with Their Appearance Often Have Problems with Their Peer Group
• Few Friends Combined with Loneliness Linked to Poor Mental and Physical Health for Elderly
• Financial Security, More than Money Alone, May Be Key to Happiness
• High IQ Linked to Reduced Risk of Death

These headlines demonstrate to me that some people aren’t taking anything for granted. Invention demands that we question, check, and re-check everything. Even the blindingly obvious. Too many discoveries have come from questioning what seemed at the time to be the obvious.

Besides, in a part of the world where almost half the population is convinced, along with Fred Flintstone, that dinosaurs co-existed with people, maybe we need to establish some very obvious facts.

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This Right Brain Workout appeared for the first time on IdeaConnection.