I read a short book about science and society last weekend, Unscientific America by Chris Mooney and Sheril Kirshenbaum. It’s a quick read, and the context is very much the 2008 elections, so you should browse it sooner than later. There are some good ideas, but the focus on web campaigns of 2008 are going to make them sound even more dated in a year.
The book argues strongly for the meaningful popularization of scientific ideas. I love the popularizers of science, and was very influenced by books like Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman and Gödel, Escher, Bach when I was a youth. The modern history sections in Unscientific America trace these popularizations to Carl Sagan’s book/television series Cosmos. I should check that out.
Healthy Algorithms 