The Popularizaton of Science

It used to be that science fiction TV shows, most notably, Star Trek, attracted people to science. Weird, since Star Trek wasn't that heavy on the science (although we pretty much have communicators).

Nowadays, there are channels like the Discovery Channel that talk about science and the universe, or Nova, the PBS show. Even those shows feel quite compelled to use CG effects to make everything seem more exciting, more enticing. It seems a bit amateurish, but I bet it works.

They use as many visual effects and analogies as possible. (Like bouncing balls representing photons).

But given the lack of math skills of most Americans, they don't bother with any serious math. Heck, any math at all. The nerdy folks will learn math and be steered in the direction of physics of some such and be out next generation of physicists.

It's sad that we can't do much math because the average person finds math too hard. To be fair, it takes a long time to learn math, and a lot of thinking, and so a show isn't really prepared to teach that in an hour's time.

It's eye candy, but only that.