Young brains being Googled as science knowledge drops among Gen Y You cannot be Yahoo Serious? Are we that bad at science? Picture: Young Einstein, supplied Source: Supplied A scene from the 1993 film 'Jurassic Park'. Like, this could happen, right? irl? 62% aged 18-24 know it takes a year for earth to orbit sun Fewer young Aussies know evolution is still happening Generally, men fared better than women in the test YOUNG Australians are becoming more ignorant about basic science - and Google could be to blame. Gen Y's reliance on the search engine to solve problems, rather than using their own brains, is a factor in the lack of scientific knowledge, experts said. A national "science literacy" survey has found that only 62 per cent of Australians aged 18-24 know that it takes a year for the earth to orbit the sun, down from 74 per cent of the same age group who answered correctly in 2010. This year's results are broadly in line with the 2010 survey that found most had a basic grasp of key scientific facts such as how much water covers the planet, if we lived with dinosaurs or not and whether evolution has stopped. Young Australians also had the largest fall in those who knew that humans are influencing evolution. In 2010, 78 per cent of 18-24-year-olds answered the survey conducted for the Australian Academy of Science correctly, but this year only 70 per cent got it right. Fewer young Australians than in 2010 also knew that evolution is still happening. Australian Academy of Science secretary for science policy Professor Les Field said it appeared younger Australians believed they did not need to know basic science facts because they could instantly search the web. Google has a lot to answer for. It's used as an alternative to fundamental understanding of the things which underpin our world," Prof Field said. I do think younger generations rely much more on technology rather than fundamental understanding of the basics. It's a worrying wake-up call to see scientific literacy declining in young adults. Prof Field, also the University of NSW's deputy vice chancellor, said Australia's education system had also moved away from basic science teaching, and he had noticed first year university students were now less prepared with basic scientific knowledge than in the past. He said the high school education system had "too many options" which allowed students to avoid subjects which were perceived to be harder. "Breadth in the education system is important but the fundamentals are important too," he said. "It's a worrying wake-up call to see scientific literacy declining among young adults, and to a lesser degree among the broader Australian adult population," Professor Field said. The encouraging news was that more Australians, 73 per cent up from 70 per cent in 2010, knew dinosaurs and humans did not live at the same time. The question about how much water on Earth is fresh stumped most groups. Only nine per cent knew it was three per cent. He said he believed children should still be taught core subjects like maths, physics and biology. However younger Australians still knew more about most basic science questions in the survey than older Australians. The worst-performing age group asked how long the earth took to orbit the sun were those aged was 65 and older. Just 46 per cent answered correctly, compared with 51 per cent in 2010. Generally, younger people, men and those with a higher education were more likely to answer the questions correctly - 68 per cent of men knew the earth takes a year to orbit the sun, compared to 50 per cent of women, and 78 per cent of university educated respondents knew that evolution was still occurring compared to 63 per cent of those with just a high school education. A significant number of Australians - 9 per cent - don't believe in evolution at all. Ten per cent did not believe in evolution in the 2010 survey. 59 per cent knew the Earth takes one year to orbit the sun * 70 per cent of people knew that evolution was still occurring * 39 per cent knew that 70 per cent of the Earth's surface is under water * 73 per cent know people are influencing the evolution of other species * 73 per cent know that the earliest humans did not live at the same time as dinosaurs * 79 per cent say science education is very important or absolutely essential to the economy. (Source: Science literacy in Australia survey of 1515 people conducted by Auspoll on behalf of the Australian Academy of Science) Recording here