• Question: When people think of scientist's they always think of people in white lab coats - Is that true or just a stereotype?!? :)

    Asked by 09datetia to Alan, Murray, Sarah on 25 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Murray Collins

      Murray Collins answered on 24 Mar 2011:

      This is a really big mistake. People working in labs represent one section of science. There are lots of scientists who neever put on a lab coat after they stop GCSE chemistry!

      If you work in field biology you are more likely to need a rainjacket and a rucksack and a hammock. There are so many different types of science- if youare doing theoretical stuff, you may be mostly in classrooms, running simulations on computers. Science isn’t just people looking down microscopes. It’s a whole world of different people finding things out in different ways! Thisis why it is so exciting. 🙂

    • Photo: Sarah Thomas

      Sarah Thomas answered on 25 Mar 2011:

      I think it is just a stereotype and I don’t think it’s helped by the media. When you see science stories in the news usually the scientists are old and boring and talk in a monotone!! And it really annoys me when they use ridiculously big words to explain the simplest of things, cos it makes people just think that all scientists are like that and we’re not! And the media always show pictures of scientists pipetting stuff… why is that? Pipetting is boring! Scientists are nice and we do fun stuff, and most of us you not that old! I’m only 25!!

      But the white coat thing is true, you have to wear a white coat if you work in a chemistry lab because you use chemicals that can burn your skin and your clothes! But if you are a boss, or work in physics or biology, you don’t have to wear one. But the media dresses people up in white coats to make them look like a “real scientist”

Comments