Most Russians Interested in New Achievements in Science, Technology - Poll

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 08th February, 2023) Seventy percent of Russians are interested in new scientific and technological achievements with almost half of them believing that world science is on the rise and serious discoveries are being made, a poll by the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) said on Wednesday.

Twenty-eight percent of respondents say that they are usually not interested in achievements in science, and 2 percent found it difficult to answer, the poll showed. Among those interested in the achievements in science and technology, there are more men than women, 77 percent versus 64 percent, respectively, the poll noted.

Up to 48 percent believe that modern world science is on the rise and serious discoveries are being made that have an impact on the development of society, while 34 percent believe that technical progress is going through a period of stagnation because discoveries that have been made do not influence the development of society. Just 9 percent see a decline in progress and believe no major discoveries are being made, the poll said.

Almost a third of respondents, or 28 percent, say that the development of modern Russian science is slightly faster than the development of world science, 32 percent believe that it is slightly behind the development of world science, 19 percent believe the development of the Russian science is significantly behind, and 9 percent say that Russian science is significantly ahead.

In addition, respondents were asked to name the achievements of Russian and world science in recent decades. According to the poll, 14 percent named achievements in the military sphere, new types of weapons, and hypersonic missiles, 9 percent achievements in the field of medicine, equipment, the invention of vaccines, heart transplantation and growing organs. Another 6 percent named progress in the space sector and launching a telescope, 5 percent in the fight against COVID-19 and the development of a vaccine from it, as well as the development of technologies, 4 percent in the nuclear industry, and 3 percent in genetics and genome decoding, robotics, and other scientific discoveries.

The poll was conducted on January 28 and surveyed 1,600 people.