Did You Know?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, April 30, 2001 | by John Elvin

* Half of Americans think the use of illegal drugs should be treated as a disease, while one-third believe the practice should be a criminal offense. Three-fourths term the "drug war" a bust (poll by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press).

* About 25 percent of adults ages 28 to 78 interviewed in the largest study to date of middle-adult years thought they had experienced a "midlife crisis." But researchers said only half that number actually experienced such a crisis (Cornell University study funded by the MacArthur Foundation defining "midlife crisis" as turmoil brought on by fears or anxieties about growing older).

* Most science textbooks used in middle schools today are riddled with errors (studies consulted for an article in the current issue of Science News magazine. Interestingly, one book was singled out by several experts as excellent -- Introduction to Physical Science, a best seller when published in 1967, but currently distributed only through Science Curriculum Inc. of Belmont, Mass.).