This is Scientific Americans 60 Second Science.

I'm Karen Hopkins.

Where were you on August 21st, 2017?

If you're like me, and a couple hundred million... on August 21st, 2017.

If you're like me, and a couple hundred million other Americans,

you were watching the total eclipse of the sun.

This is it.

Oh my God! It was breathtaking, mind-blowing, awesomely spectacular, and potentially educational.

Because a new study shows that folks who saw the Celestial event sought information on solar eclipses about

16 times, both before and after the big day.

In the U.S. some 216 million adults viewed the eclipse, that's 88% of the adult population.

This viewership dwarfs that of the Super Bowl and ranks among the most watched events in American

history. That's according to the Michigan Scientific

Literacy Survey of 2017. John Miller of the University of Michigan conducts a national study

of Americans scientific know-how twice a year. But last year he added another survey

over the week or two after the eclipse, while the experience was still fresh.

Oh my God, that was amazing! He discovered that in the months prior to the eclipse there was a flurry of interest in the phenomenon.

People searched online for eclipse related information and talked about it with family and friends.

And the nearly 20 million who traveled to see the

eclipse were even more hungry for heavenly knowledge, averaging nearly 25

episodes of eclipse-related information seeking. In comparison, those who, for whatever reason, missed the

event only reported reading or chatting about it six times. But the interest didn't end

...