
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 17, 1991                   TAG: 9102170100
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

U.S. PUBLIC OUTDOES JAPAN'S IN SCIENCE TEST

American adults are more informed than Japanese adults about certain technologies even though Japanese students consistently outscore their American counterparts on science tests, surveys show.

"This is the first time we've had data that suggests we're not being blown away," said Jon D. Miller, director of the Public Opinion Laboratory at Northern Illinois University.

"We have huge numbers of people who don't understand science and technology, but other countries like Japan also have many of these same problems," he said Friday at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Questions about lasers and antibiotics, for instance, found that more Americans than Japanese understood those concepts.

- Associated Press

by CNB