Mad Scientist StereotypeOutdated

Do people stillimagine a physicist as a bearded man in glasses or has the image of the madscientist changed?The Institute of Physics set out to find out whether the

stereotype of aphysics boffin （科学家）stillexists by conducting a survey on shoppers in London. The people were asked toidentify the physicist from a photograph of a

line-up of possiblesuspects.98 percent of those asked got it wrong. The majority of people pickeda white male of around 60,wearing glasses and with a white beard.

While thisstereotype may have been the image of all average physicist fifty years ago,thereality is now very different. Since 1960 the number of young women entering

physics has doubledand the average age of a physicist is now 3

The stereotype ofthe absent-minded scientist has lasted a long time because the media and Hollywood help promotethe image of men in white lab coats with glasses sitting

by blackboards fullof equations（等式）or workingwith fizzing（嘶嘶响）test tubes. These stereotypes arereally damaging to society.Very good school children are put

off studying sciencebecause they don't see people like themselves on television or in magazines doingscience.They simply don't relate to the media's image of the mad

scientist.

This is one reasonwhy fewer young people are choosing to do science at university. If we want toencourage more young people to study science subjects,we need to change

this image of thescientist and make science careers more attractive. But we must also developchildren's interest in science.

In an attempt tochange this negative image,an increasing number of science festivals are beingorganized.Thousands of people from secondary schools are also encouraged to

take part in theinternational science competitions of which the most popular are the nationalscience Olympiads.Winning national teams then get the opportunity to take part

in the InternationalScience Olympiads which are held in a different country every year. Theseevents are all interesting for the young people who take part but they only

involve a smallproportion of students who are already interested in science.It seems thatthere is a long way to go before science becomes attractive as subjects likecomputer

studies or fashionand design.The media and thecinema have played a role in promoting the image of the mad scientist.

A.Right

B.Wrong

C.Not mentioned