Nature Comments on the Changing Scene. (August 30, 2007)

Number Crunch

33% is the proportion of Americans following science and technology news "very closely" during 1986–89, according to the snappily titled Pew News Interest Index.

16% is the corresponding figure for 2000–06.

17% is the number of news junkies with a keen interest in celebrity scandals, showing that the world of science is now measurably less popular than Paris Hilton, though perhaps not as much as [Nature's August 30, 2007] Sidelines might have thought.