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Do people still imagine a physicist as a bearded man in glasses or has the image of the mad scientist changed? The Institute of Physics set out to find out whether the stereotype of a physics boffin still exists by conducting a survey on shoppers in London. The people were asked to identify the physicist from a photograph of a line-up of possible suspects. 98 percent of those asked got it wrong. The majority of people picked a white male of around 60, wearing glasses and with a white beard. While this stereotype may have been the image of an average physicist fifty years ago, the reality is now very different. Since 1960 the number of young women entering physics has doubled and the average age of a physicist is now 31. The stereotype of the absent-minded scientist has lasted a long time because the media and Hollywood help promote the image of men in white lab coats with glasses sitting by blackboards full of equationsor working with fizzing test tubes. These stereotypes are really damaging to society. Very good school children are put off studying science because they dont see people like themselves on television or in magazines doing science. They simply dont relate to the medias image of the mad scientist. This is one reason why fewer young people are choosing to do science at university. If we want to encourage more young people to study science subjects, we need to change this image of the scientist and make science careers more attractive. But we must also develop childrens interest in science. | 
