Will science solve the world's problems?

46390

Total votes

15394

5-11 votes

30996

11-16+ votes

Many of your garden variety superheroes have a scientific background. Think Tony Stark or the Hulk. (Other superhero franchises are available). But will science help us fix the many problems that the world faces?

Science, a broad subject to say the least, made many significant breakthroughs in 2022. From predictions of extreme weather to enhanced deep space photography, progress in 2022 was astounding. There were further advances in our understanding of how microbes act and how we can better treat some of the diseases that blight the world.

With this in mind, our voters considered whether more of our attention should be geared towards funding and finding scientific innovations and solutions in the future.

Primary school

"We think Science will solve the world's problems, that's why we think it is important for children to learn Science in school. More time should be devoted to learning Science in schools to inspire future Scientists.”

Secondary school

"Science can not solve all the world problems. The environment and global warming might happen before we find a way.”

College

“If they have the right funding and the right equipment they will be able to figure out how to get sustainable energy to every country [...] If we all supported science more we could get a lot more done."

60% of 5-11 year olds said that science could solve the world's problems

All of our students considered the same question this week, with our youngest voters appearing to be the most optimistic about science's ability to enact real change.
77% of 5-7 year olds voted 'Yes' to the question - "Will science fix the world's problems?"
Comparatively, 53% of 7-11 year olds voted 'Yes' to the question - "Will science solve the world's problems?"

64% of 11-16+ year olds disagreed and said that science was not a complete fix

For our older students, the results differed quite significantly.
Just 36% of 11-16 year olds voted 'Yes', meaning 64% do not believe that science can solve the world's problems.
Our 16+ and College vote swung even more heavily towards 'No', with 66% voting that science is not the only answer to the problems we face.

Year 10 had the highest yes vote among secondary school students last week, with 40% believing that science could fix the world's problems

Interestingly, Year 10 had the highest 'Yes' vote among our Secondary school students.
Over 5,000 Year 10 students voted, however the majority still voted 'No', at 60%.
Over highest 'Yes' vote among Primary pupils came from Year 1, with 80% voting 'Yes'.

Feedback from our Impact Partners

This week, two of our Impact Partners responded to what the young people have said in the vote.

Professor Jim Al-Khalili of the University of Surrey and presenter of Radio 4's The Life Scientific as well as Maria Rossini, Head of Education at the British Science Association responded to what the young people have said.

Click on the videos to see what they said.