If anything, this is further proof of the very poor standards to which the scientific education of the young has fallen in Britain and Ireland. So far as I know, the previously separate subjects of chemistry, physics and biology have been rolled up into one dumbed-down soft n fluffy subject called 'science' - with exams that are no more than multiple choice questions, so in my stat porn view of the world, a percentage of people will appear to get top marks without knowing anything at all, like the proverbial million monkeys and their typewriters.

"I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It is a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."