From the BBC:
The Science Learning Centre in London asked 11,000 pupils for their views on science and scientists.
Around 70% of the 11-15 year olds questioned said they did not picture scientists as “normal young and attractive men and women“.
Or, over 70% of pupils are just too stupid to be scientists, or indeed perform any useful function in today’s “knowledge based economy thing”. The BBC managed to fight against the stereotype by accompanying the article with a stock photo of an old guy with mad, white hair performing some horrendous experiment on a BMX biker.
Anyway, what’s this with not being attractive, eh? Or the quote from one girl about why she wouldn’t want to be a scientist, “because they all wear big glasses and white coats..” Well I wear contact lenses, thank you very much (although I do have a pair of smallish DKNY glasses as well). As for white lab coats being a turn-off, I will merely point you in the direction of this comments section (although admittedly that might just be graduates of UNC Chapel Hill).
Now if you’ll excuse me, there’s a thunderstorm brewing and I have a little experiment in the basement that needs the kind of power a lightening strike can provide.
German Word For Today: “Wissenschaftler” - Mad, bad and dangerous to know
Song playing as this was published: Nine Inch Nails “Sanctified”
Oh come now, we scientists are all notoriously ugly.
I think you’ll agree that there’s a world of difference between a white lab coat in this context and in this context
UNC is an anomaly -yes we all look stunning in our lab coats. However, I fear that most of my colleagues elsewhere just aren’t that attractive. Perhaps it is an allocation of resource issue: the hot ones are just too busy socially to open a book while people as ugly as Bill Gates are taking over the world.
Alastair: Speak for yourself, although I have seen your photograph. I think you will find that I am only moderately ugly.
EasyJetstter: I concede that there is a minor difference between the attractiveness of the subjects of the two photogrpahs.
820: You should see how stunning the athletic running tops of said academic establishment look. Bearing in mind the curse attached to it, I waited until all the ice here had melted before going out for a run in it as it would no doubt have “caused” me to fall and sprain my ankle.
The grotesque appearance I can deal with, it’s the insane cackling that worries me.