I know I’m really late with this, but what do you consider as “studying science”? Making a career of it? Does being an engineer count (I guess it does)? Or is getting (an amount of knowledge equivalent to) a B.Sc. enough too? Maybe even less than that, learning cool nuggets of science as a hobby? I think this should be better defined.
If it’s just a career that counts, I’m afraid that the main inhibitor is not interest, but fear for career prospects. Most often when I head people’s reasons not to pursue a career in science, it’s because they don’t think they’ll make a good living out of it, or because it’s hard and they don’t think they’ll make it. If it’s the hobbyist population you’re worried about, I think it’s pretty decent, after factoring in access to prerequisite knowledge, free time, and upbringings. Though there is a LOT of room for improvement on that front.
Those who actually don’t find science interesting seem to think that way mostly because of bad teacher experiences or the social stigma of “nerds”, as far as I’ve seen.
I know I’m really late with this, but what do you consider as “studying science”? Making a career of it? Does being an engineer count (I guess it does)? Or is getting (an amount of knowledge equivalent to) a B.Sc. enough too? Maybe even less than that, learning cool nuggets of science as a hobby? I think this should be better defined. If it’s just a career that counts, I’m afraid that the main inhibitor is not interest, but fear for career prospects. Most often when I head people’s reasons not to pursue a career in science, it’s because they don’t think they’ll make a good living out of it, or because it’s hard and they don’t think they’ll make it. If it’s the hobbyist population you’re worried about, I think it’s pretty decent, after factoring in access to prerequisite knowledge, free time, and upbringings. Though there is a LOT of room for improvement on that front. Those who actually don’t find science interesting seem to think that way mostly because of bad teacher experiences or the social stigma of “nerds”, as far as I’ve seen.