I'm somewhat confused why this is an issue. Who listens to anyone in a specific field? How many non-plumbers read up on issues that matter to plumbers? Most research publications are describing incremental advances in highly technical fields. Why the hell would the public care about (to take an example from my J Neuroscience rss feed) seratonin reuptake transporter function in C Elegans? They won't. However, when that breakthrough comes that makes it relevant to curing cancer or whatever, they'll hear about it.

Reading some posts below, people seem to think that just because public money is being spent on "science", everyone should be able to understand it. My answers to that:

(1) Your money is being spent trying to find advances in technology/physics/medicine/whatever. We are hard at work doing so. We will let you know when something happens.

(2) It took Us (us = the researchers you're accusing of being insulting and callous towards the public) many, many years to understand what the hell we're doing. Your expectation that you will understand it without the necessary background is misinformed and frankly amusing. That being said, the popular press is there to do exactly that; contact your favorite media source and ask that they cover more advances in "science". They get paid to do this sort of work for you.

In re-reading this, it sounds pretty callous. I guess that's because I've become jaded by the constant "Why can't you explain this stuff easily! you must be a bad scientist! I'm going to write letters asking not to fund you!" The better question should be, why does the press not cover this stuff? Maybe they think (rightly so) that no one actually cares about it. Go ahead, ask to have our funding cut and spent on your medicaid bills; don't come whining to me when me and all my scientist friends have left to country to work in a more science-friendly environment.