The world today requires that its citizens, if they intend to survive and prosper, continue to learn and develop technical skills throughout their lives. Our nation depends on science and engineering for its way of life—and for its domestic security.
In a 1994 interview, the late Carl Sagan, then David Duncan professor of astronomy and physics at Cornell University, said, "We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet we have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. That’s a clear prescription for disaster."