Yesterday was released a new survey on the interest of Brazilian population on general science and technology. The survey was requested by the ministry of science and technology. The result was that S&T comes only at 6th place on the interest of general population.
According to the ministry, this number is the result of lack of investment in S&T, media desinterest, but mainly the difficult of the laypeople to understand what is going on inside laboratories.
The main suggestion of the ministry was to increase scientific education in schools, create new scientific institutions and invest in the visibility of science in the great midia.
Considering that science in Brasil is young (graduation courses started in the middle of the 60s) the statistic did not overconcerned the ministry.