and Science circuses planned in China (via 3quarksdaily):
"As part of its 15-year plan to develop nationwide science and technology literacy, particularly among farmers and migrant workers, Beijing has rolled out an 860 million renminbi ($111 million) initiative to introduce China's vast, rural adult population to science. Formally established last year, the program uses unusual means such as "science trains" and "science circuses" to deliver its message. Academics and educators now tour the country, traversing even remote areas of Inner Mongolia and Gansu provinces, where they greet locals, hand out materials and books translated into the nation's minority languages, and unfurl red banners that read "Spread the Scientific Spirit."
"There is a recognition within science policy-making structures that at a time when the level of investment [in science] is rising so rapidly, there is a need to bring people with them in that endeavor," says James Wilsdon, director of the science and innovation program for United Kingdom consultancy Demos, who recently spent five months in China interviewing science officials. "It's important that the vast hinterland of the Chinese population feels that this push for scientific development is about doing stuff that will improve the quality of their lives."
As China pours money into ambitious initiatives like nanotechnology, supercomputers, and its space program, surveys suggest that as much as 98 percent of the population lacks the education necessary to comprehend the basics of science. But scientific achievement is increasingly part of modern China's nationalism, and so the country's uneducated workers—traditional allies in government-engendered nationalism—must comprehend science. President Hu Jintao called recently on government workers to "on all fronts vigorously publicize scientific development...and to instill it in the hearts of the people.""
