• Question: When people imagine scientists they imagine them to have grey curley hair and glasses and white coats and long grey beards. Why do people imagine scientists to look like this?

    Asked by 9chadh to Antonia, Douglas, Hugh, Matt, Tom on 22 Jun 2010 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Antonia Hamilton

      Antonia Hamilton answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      I think because movies and books present that image of scientists, and most people see scientists in movies more often than they see scientists in real life.

    • Photo: Matthew Hurley

      Matthew Hurley answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Einstein looked like this and I suppose he was around at an influencial time – then newspaper and comics and tv.

    • Photo: Douglas Blane

      Douglas Blane answered on 18 Jun 2010:

      Easy answer is that’s how they’re shown in films. And films are made mostly by people who aren’t scientists. People who are ofen a bit scared of science, cos they don’t get it.

      But scientists often don’t help when it comes to their image. Take a look at this picture of Albert Einstein, the scientist most people know.

      If you do an image search on Einstein you’ll find plenty of photos that fit right in with what you describe. Except for the white coat. Einstein was a theoretical physicist and didn’t work in a lab.

      The biggest problem with the picture of scientists you describe is that it’s always a man. Which puts girls and women off going into science.

      And that means science isn’t as good as it could be.

    • Photo: Tom Hardy

      Tom Hardy answered on 22 Jun 2010:

      Because many are like that! If you visit my old chemistry department at uni then you would see a fair few long grey beards and glasses, but because they have been around a while they are excellent scientists.

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