Can the public handle science?

This is a pretty interesting article about bad science journalism. It asks whose fault it is, the public, the journalists, or the scientists themselves. Ohh.. and this picture has nothing to do with anything.

In a report published today Britain's National Academy of Sciences has said slip ups in the past have led to distorted reporting of issues such as MMR and GM crops. Scientists often blame the media for distorted reporting of science stories. But does the misreporting have its origins in the research community? A couple of years ago, scientists organising a major European fertility meeting invited a researcher to present evidence that a group of women seeking fertility treatment were more likely conceive if they were hypnotised. It was a fantastic story and prominently reported across the world. The problem was that the research was dubious. The hypnotised group were much younger and so more likely to be fertile than - than the un-hypnotised group.