I'm Alan Older and this is Clear In vivid conversations about connecting and communicating.

The first thing we found through studies was that the words people use when you talk

about science are very positive words, words like curiosity, discovery, optimism, youth,

and then looking a little more deeply and how people talk about it.

It became very clear something fascinating that was going on there, that for most Americans

they equate the words science with hope.

In the last hundred years something has changed.

Our lives run on science now and there's no going back.

The food, the information we consume, the medications we take, they all depend on science

to reach us and to get to us at a price we can afford.

We want a pill or a discovery that will allow us to live and we not only wanted, we expected.

Even our money.

There's a generation among us that doesn't carry cash, just a little piece of plastic that

gets them everywhere.

Do we realize how dependent we are on science?

Do we understand what might happen to us if science suddenly stops or slows to a trickle?

Chris Volpy wants to know how we feel about science.

It's an important question and it's one that needs a good answer if science is going to

survive.

Chris I'm really glad to be talking to you today because I think about this all the time,

the relationship between our culture and science and it disturbs me a little bit.

Funding is down for science, especially basic research.

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