Public understanding of science in Europe 1989-2005. A Eurobarometer trend file.

Science and technology. Compiled data set of five Eurobarometer.

Topics: Levels of information and interest towards sports news,
politics, new medical discoveries, new investigations and technologies
and new scientific discoveries; frequency of visiting a science and
technology museum, a zoo or aquarium, a natural history museum, a
public library and an art museum; knowledge of fundamental scientific
facts (center of the earth is hot, origin of oxygen, radioactive milk,
proportions of electrons and atoms, movement of continents, genes,
earliest humans lived in the time of dinosaurs, antibiotics, lasers,
all radioactivity is man-made, evolution of human beings); natural
science knowledge test (the earth orbits around the sun, duration of an
orbit around the sun); familiarity with probability calculus and
scientific testing methods; assessment of different fields of knowledge
as scientific: biology, astronomy, history, physics, astrology,
economics, medicine, psychology, mathematics and homeopathy; attitude
towards science and technology (scale: more comfort, natural resources
will be inexhaustible because of scientific and technological advances,
dependence on science and not on faith, no important role of scientific
research in protecting the environment, painful experiments on animals
should be allowed to produce information about human health problems,
knowledge of scientists makes them dangerous, makes work more
interesting, knowledge about science is not important in respondent`s
daily life, makes the way of life change too fast, more opportunities
for the future generation); issue-comparison of Europe and the USA in
scientific discoveries, technological advances applied in industry and
everyday life; knowledge about European Community activities in
scientific and technical areas (agriculture, energy, science and
technology, environment and defence).

Demography: Marital status, age at completion or stop of fulltime
education; sex; age; size of community (degree of urbanization);
religion; occupational status; nation.