The scientist drawings that my friends and I made consist of a large white lab coat as most of the picture, with some accessory items such as a head, arms and legs sticking out of the giant coat.  All of the drawings had glasses and most had beards and crazy hair. 

            The illustrations of the scientists reflect a long-standing, media-created view of the scientist.  Let’s consider Dr. Frankenstein for a moment:

Crazy hair? Check.

Goggles/glasses? Check.

White lab coat? Check.

This view of scientists is an interesting consideration when deliberating how it affects the public’s trust in scientists and their conclusions.  The example of Dr. Frankenstein is a perfect example for this.  Examining not just his appearance, but his life story, one can see that he is eccentric, willing to go beyond the realm of appropriate behavior for his experiments (collecting body parts and whatnot), and cannot control his own creations.  Many of these characteristics are shared amongst scientists in movies and other media outlets. 

            Despite the overuse of these characteristics in many scientists in movies, many scientists I have met are not this way at all.  Throughout my time doing research from my freshman summer in high school, to my current research at Ursinus College, I have encountered quite a few scientists along my way.  One thing that I can say about most of the people that I meet in scientific fields is that they are extremely logical.  In order to perform experiments and to discover new things, one must be able to troubleshoot.  This requires a fair amount of logical thinking (eg. “given this, this and that… what could be the root of a problem in this experiment”).  This characteristic in scientists has allowed me to see scientists in their true light: as interesting AND interested people with the ability to solve problems (in science and in life) in an efficient and agreeable way and finally to see beyond (excuse my French) the bullshit and to interpret information as it is.  Perhaps if the media were a bit kinder to scientists, the public would have an easier time trusting them and trusting their findings.  Maybe one day instead of thinking scientists and seeing Dr. Frankenstein in our minds eye, we will see someone more like this: