On the surface, everything's going great.

There have been a bunch of polls, a bunch of research on this.

And what I'm about to say is going to be a very U.S.-centric point of view, because that's where

I'm drawing my data from to make this argument that I'm about to make.

But if you're tuning in from outside the United States, and I know many of you are, don't

think you can play the not in my country card.

This is a global issue.

It just has different flavors around the world.

But we're going to focus on the data that I have in front of me, which is polls and research taken in the United States.

57% of Americans say that science has a mostly positive effect on society.

57%.

You can't get 57% of Americans to say that salad dressing has a mostly positive effect on society.

73% of U.S. adults say they have a great deal or at least a fair amount of trust.

In scientists, 73% that's doing better than cops, then public school principals,

then religious leaders, then journalists, then business leaders, then elected officials, although that one's a pretty low bar.

But wow, 78% say that government investment in science is worthwhile.

Billions of dollars flow from a dozen federal agencies into fundamental scientific

research every single year. The vast majority of my own research has been publicly funded.

In times of crisis, we turn to scientists to give us advice and wisdom. When there's a major

earthquake or a huge weather event

or, you know, a global pandemic, we turn to scientists say, hey, explain to me what is going on

and give us some tips on how to get through this and how to prevent it from happening again.

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