Brown paused to take a sip of water, looking around the room to see if he still had their attention. UC Modesto was not an easy place to teach, especially in his department. The kids just weren't that interested in history anymore. He noticed one student staring fixedly at him, a look of anger on his face.

Probably some religious nut. The San Joaquin Valley is filled with them. It's a fertile ground for the recruiting by lots of hate groups. Too bad, mister. It's just history. "This correlates well with the general observation that interest in or respect for scientists was at an all-time low, even in technologically advanced societies like the EU or the US. In particular, most citizens in our own country should have been called technological savages in the sense that they enjoyed the developments that made their lives easier or more fun, but they had no clue whatsoever about how things really worked. In an NSF survey taken in 2000, about half the respondents did not know: (a) that the earliest humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs; (b) that it takes Earth one year to go around the Sun; (c) that electrons are smaller than atoms; and (d) that antibodies do not kill viruses. One adult in five actually thought the Sun revolved around the Earth, certainly making dear old Copernicus and Galileo turn over in their graves."

There were some real chuckles from the students in response to that. Sitting in the first row and looking around the lectern, Denise could see that Professor Brown had two different colors of socks on. The man's crumpled suit and wild hair was also evidence of a complete lack of attention to appearance.