To celebrate national science week, Australia’s Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) surveyed 1,250 Aussies to ask if sci-fi ideas like hover boards and light sabres were real or not. Here are some of the interesting results. What do you think?
• 76.1% wrongly believe microscopic life exists on other planets
• 53.5% wrongly believe hover boards, (think Back To The Future) exist
• 44.1% correctly believe flying cars exist
• 42.6% incorrectly believe in reverse cryonics
• 23.6% believe light sabres exist
On microscopic life, I think ANSTO is referring to if we’ve found it already. Either way, kind of confusing.
Otherwise, do you a quarter of you guys really believe in light sabres? Not sure about that. Much more inclined to believe the survey suggesting women are most interested in robots doing housework, while blokes are more interested in time travel. Speaking of which, only 7.2% of Australians surveyed believe time travel is possible. Big ups to us, because a massive 30% of Brits thought we had the scientific means to do so.
The Australian sample was only just over a 1,250, so I’m not really sure how reflective is of the population as a whole. Still, it makes for some fun Friday stats. Especially going into Saturday where a bunch of interactive discussions will take place at the University of Sydney. More info at: [ANSTO]