Strontium is an element. Doesn't have a "chemical make-up". It's just strontium. 
I worded it wrong. I meant the subatomic configuration, like protons/neutrons/electrons, the things that give it its unstable radioactive properties. But alright, you got me there.
Atomic number 38; 38 protons, 38 electrons. Mass number 90, so it's gotta have... 52 neutrons. It's a heavy isotope of strontium (something you can tell by looking at a periodic table), so that's why it's unstable. Again, not really complicated knowledge, just some basic understanding of chemistry/physics and some basic maths.
I could tell you some stuff about this chemical that really would be useless for average, everyday life. For instance, when burnt, strontium compounds burn with a strong red flame, which is often used in distress flares, and sometimes other things, like fireworks. Cool, huh?
And there's a large difference between specific knowledge like that, and general understanding of basic concepts, like, y'know. Molecules.
I got that specific info from the article, which stated:
For example, he said, in the era of nuclear tests he asked people whether they knew about strontium 90, a component of fallout.
Alright, I'll admit I may have taken it to the opposite extreme, like the article itself did, but I still do question the validity of the data.
Fair enough.
Sounds like more of a "wah wah I'm a professional scientist and I'm mad that people don't understand science as well as I do!" type of thing really. The average person can get by without knowing the chemical makeup of Strontium-90 and its radioactive half-life, thankyouverymuch.
Strontium 90's radioactive halflife is 28.78 years, as it so happens... and people living around, say, Chernobyl WOULD want to know that, so they could find out how much !@#$% they're in.
Thank god for Wikipedia!!
Yeah, it's very useful for figures like half-life, relative atomic mass, and stuff like that. I'd question the rest of the content, though.
I'm very thankful that Canada is almost 100% atheist. We only learn evolution here, no creationism.
Actually, according to the 2001 census, over 77% of Canadians identify themselves as Christian; over 6% as other religions, with around 16.5% idnentifying themselves as not affiliated with any religion. That doesn't even mean athiest - agnostics, and those who believe in gods rather than religions would come under that 16.5 as well.
I really don't see how you get from 16.5 to "almost 100%". That's some real dodgy maths there.
Although our Education system isn't perfect, I'm sure it's one of the better ones.
Yay for flawed assertions, and irony, as either a) you didn't know the real figures for religious distribution in your country or b) you were told something that's clearly wrong.
It'd be like Bush boasting about how America's a very liberal, accepting country...
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