Table 1. Semiotic analysis of the meanings in the elements of the ‘egghead scientist’.
Feature Quality Attitude to science
White lab coat Clinical, abstract, physical, unemotional Unrelated to real life
Test tubes, Bunsen burner,
etc, may produce explosions
Reductionist, using specialised equipment
with sometimes spectacular results
Failure to connect with the
whole, factual, potentially
dangerous implications
Glasses/Egghead Learned, intellectual, clever, eccentric,
emotionally dysfunctional
Difficult subject – hard to
succeed
Male Patriarchal authority, power of knowledge Unquestioned authority