And what better way to get a lot of young people interested in science than by producing movies and television shows that depict scientists in flattering ways?

Fortunately recent TV shows with allusions to science for solving crimes, movies depicting scientists in a more favorable light and plays that are balanced in their presentation have changed the general picture of scientists and the work they do, even to the extent of humanizing them.

The notes depicted German artists and scientists together with symbols and tools of their trade.

I like audacious ideas, and this novel uses some in a context reflecting another of my repeating concerns: depicting scientists as they actually are, especially at work.

Highlights include 168 specimens and 11 large-scale models of rock formations, video stations depicting scientists at work and an "Earth Event Wall" that broadcasts news on events like hurricanes, volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

IN one of the halls of the museum, where Hardesty had gone early in the morning to see Jackson Mead, was a huge painting that depicted scientists at work in the court of Frederick the Great-who stood in the midst of several men and a complicated laboratory apparatus, posing heroically in a black-and-gray coat.