Hi, just wanted to firstly say a big thank you to Barbara for writing what she did about scientific skepticism on her site — it was a real eye-opener that showed me how some skeptic websites don’t seem to realize that skepticism isn’t ‘make it what you want to be’- much like feminism isn’t ‘what you want it to be’, like someone else said! It was good to see people like the Bad Astronomer and Daniel Loxton support you too. So thank you.

My question is for Michael though — your profile on the Token Skeptic interview said that you work for a government body that is for science and industry. What factors encourage science literacy (if such a term is right) and is it true that science shows, like skeptic demonstrations, aren’t as educationally effective as they may seem to be?