Why do people think scientists are scruffy.

An article in the World's Fair called "Who's a pretty scientist has noted the existence of a collection of paintings, engravings and photographs of eminent scientists. There is a slight problem with these, which I shall now elaborate.


This man did not develop the theory of special relativity!

No, I haven't gone bonkers, bear with me.

This man did.

Young, reasonably smart and well presented. Not a scruffy, white haired eccentric.

But everyone thinks the great genius Einstein was a white-haired old man, not a 26 year old, because most pictures of eminent scientists are those of them many years *after* they did the work that made them famous.

I didn't spot this problem myself, Sir Harry Kroto points it out in his lectures.

The images are from the Wikipedia article.