'Elitist' views of science tackled

The government will tackle the perceptions of many people that science is "too clever for them or elitist in some way", Lord Drayson has said.

The innovation minister said the government is working to address the problem and get more people involved in science.

Prime minister Gordon Brown, skills secretary John Denham and Lord Drayson were all appearing at events on Wednesday to promote science and innovation day.

The campaign is based around a series of events and milestones throughout the year including 'National science and engineering week' in March and regional science festivals.

And on Wednesday, celebrities including Terry Pratchett, Heston Blumenthal and Bill Bryson were invited to Downing Street for a discussion on how to promote science.

Lord Drayson acknowledged that despite the UK being a "world leader" in science, more could be done to promote it.

"Science is going to be an important tool for getting us out of this downturn," he said.

"We all need to be aware of the impact of science on our lives.

"We also need more trained scientists and engineers to help build the Britain of the future in key areas such as earth and life sciences."

The government has taken a full page advert in the Sun newspaper to promote science involvement. It reads: "Science: So what? So everything."

Lord Drayson said that half the people polled by government thought that science would find a cure for cancer over the next 30 years.

But he told the BBC that half of them also felt that science was too clever for them or too difficult to understand.

And only three per cent of them thought that science was something that had a relevance to their everyday life, he added.

"We really have to change this if we are to realise the full potential of our country and build on the strengths that we have in science," Lord Drayson stated.

"We are trying to bust this myth about elitism by showing people examples of how science does have an impact on their everyday life."

Lord Drayson argued that jobs which depend on science and maths skills will increase by around a third over the next decade.

"The reality is that we need more people being interested in and being good at science if we are going to develop as a country," he insisted.

Professor Marcus du Sautoy, professor of the public understanding of science at Oxford University, told the BBC that there were different levels of science and people did not need to be in the 'elite' to understand it.

"There is a problem with the perception of science. It is partly the scientists fault," he accepted.

"It is a language problem. Making it scientifically literate is a good word. People feel excluded by the fact that they do not understand the words."