A science blog with Eric Berger

Why are engineers and scientists no longer celebrities?




It didn’t always used to be that way, he says. Engineers and scientists, way back in the 1940s, 50s and 60s were featured prominently on magazine covers, newspapers and on television as the heroes and pioneers of the age.

I can envision this with scientists like Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer and astronauts like Neil Armstrong as media sensations.


Would Oppy still be a celebrity today?

But now? Not so much. Many if not most Americans would probably be pressed to name a living American scientist. Schweber has a guess as to why:

Bottom line: engineers and scientists have been diminished in stature over the last half-century because they succeeded beyond almost anyone’s expectations, including their own. The writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke said, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

We’ve taken the magic and thus the awe out of it, and made it seem routine and effortless, but now we find out that making accomplishments routine and effortless translates into an outcome which is neither admired nor acknowledged.

In other words, scientists and engineers are victims of their own success. Maybe. Or maybe people are waiting to give scientists their due until they deliver that long-promised flying car.

Categories: Science policy
Eric Berger

32 Responses

  1. Jay says:

    We’re past the point of individual genius characterizing most scientific advances. There are so many smart people, and they are so organized, we’re now in the era of super projects worked on by large numbers of collaborators.

  2. Eric Berger says:



    This is absolutely true in a broad sweep of fields, from physics to genetics. Good point.


  3. NoWhining says:

    Frankly, non-engineers and non-scientists, that would include journalist, basically have no interest in difficult subjects unless it is of direct benefit to their own self-interest.

    There’s plenty of engineering and science reported in journals every day. Instead, MSM finds it much simpler to run around reporting on dirty laundry and manufactured.

    So why don’t we have more engineering and science celebs?? That would be because journalist have become lazy.

  4. Morris says:

    A new quote might read, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from CGI.” There seems to be a significant portion of the population that doubts whether any of the moon landings ever took place. Since seeing is no longer believing, the only technology that people are sure of is in their automobiles or hand held devices. At that, few people know how most of it works.

    So, we are left with either disbelief or blind acceptance, neither of which gives engineers or scientists their due.

  5. IANVS says:


    re: “That would be because journalist have become lazy.”

    Good point. TV producers have learned that mindless “reality” shows get all the ratings. So why should science journalists be any different.

    The public only knows about contemporary great science & great scientists when the news media accurately reports it. Unfortunately, both no longer do.

    And the Bush/Cheney terror reign of keep-the-science-from-the-people and squelch-the-scientists-who-dare-speak-out certainly didn’t help things none.

    But that shouldn’t deflect any blame away from lazy & irresponsible science journalists.

  6. hunter says:

    I love predictable yet always fresh humor. Especially the unintentional kind.

  7. richard says:

    The “Cult of the Amateur”. People who are trained in science are very annoying to people who manipulate opinion based on politics.

  8. KC says:


    Come up with a transport that can travel at the speed of light. That will get you some headlines on the front of TV, radio, and newsprint.

    Good luck!! :)

  9. Old Gringo Stan says:

    It’s modern programs. A small group of experts using blood sweat and tears have developed programs that do all the hard thinking and provide accurate results.

    New engineers are NOT required to understand, just learn how to run the latest program. If they enter a wrong value by mistake, many do not recognize a terrible answer. I always used my $10 calculator to make sure my results were in the balpark.

    I did a job in Monterey Mexico in 78. They treated me like a celebrity. Restoring their sub station was a big deal to them. Back home, I was just another engineer.

    Also, when I was Elect. Supt. of Hess Oil Refinery in st Croix for 13 years, I was a big deal. Refinery folks do not understand electrical, it just better be there or your butt is bacon.

    Overall, our society is dumbing down with computer games and very smart programs.

  10. Rocknocker says:

    The email scandal invlving “climategate” placed scientists (and possibly engineers) under negative scrutiny because a sacred trust was violated. Scientists and Engineers are viewed as honest borkers in the work they do and in public matters. Climategate emails undermined that trust.

  11. ttyler5 says:


    You really don’t know?

    Science and Engineering are

    1) White Male Bastions

    2) and are also along with Christianity, Democracy and Capitalism, one of the defining characteristic of Western Civilization.

    For some time now the Academic pseudo-Kulture has been left to people who are attempting to demonize all of those things.

    This infects the pop culture via the badly-educated types who wind up in the mass media.

  12. Meiczyslaw says:

    Virginia Postrel makes the argument that glamor is driven by mystery. If she’s right, then the glamor went out of scientists and engineers because there’s so many of us.

    Seriously — in the United States, everyone knows one of us.

  13. ohiwishiwasbeautiful says:

    What about Bill Gates? Well, if he had Arnold Schwarzenegger’s body and Charro’s personality ~ or maybe vice versa.

    Micro-attention spans and complete ignorance of the scientific process are so prevalent among my acquaintances that i can hardly believe that these types of folks were ever idolized or understood by the general population.

  14. Jim says:

    It is what the news pushes.

    Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Madonna, movies, records, music, 24/7 religion, rock stars, rappers, baseball players,

    football players, basketball players, Joel Osteen, drug dealers, fancy cars, bling.

    There was once a time when news was steel mills,

    rocket scientists, railroads, highways, new cars, manufacturing goals,

    college graduates, computer programmers, IT technicians, power plants.

    Now we read about all the guys that made it, and made it big, without even a high school education

    from the news. The news is selecting our heros. Surely it is news organizations that continue to put people like Dick Cheney, Carl Rove, and Rush Limbaugh before the American public when any first year law student could find 20 pages of laws they had broken.

    Why is it that we are still in an economic dive and it is not being covered, but we know that Sandra Bullock and Erin Woods both have cheating husbands?

    Why is it that we need to seriously reevaluate our energy and water use and sources, but the

    news wants to talk about 3400 year old statues in the Sahara and the reclassification of far off Pluto?

    Why is it that we want power even nuclear power, but with the exception of nuclear waste facilities near Andrews, Texas and the billion dollar facility near Eunice, New Mexico we are still far short of finding a safe dump for it after 50 years, and the news covers the shooting at Bob’s Bar?

    Why is it that you have to go to some podunk newspaper to find out what a rotten deal one of the major chicken companies is giving their producers, when chicken is the cheapest meat source we’ve got, and the news covers a beer truck wreck on the overpass?

    It is because the news as we know it is flat screwed up. It is run by corporations with interlocking ties with other corporations until

    in reality news has become a scrim that tells us less and less about the real world in which we live, a world that needs engineers to keep it going, but the news only wants you to see the rock stars.

  15. Everitt Mickey says:

    Two Reasons.

    First…the Public “so called” Education System.


  16. Cabalfighter says:

    Great post Jim. You nailed it.

  17. I blame the growing Evangelical Christian movement.

    They HATE scientists almost as much as they hate their own government.

  18. mikec says:

    Ahh, keep putting out a weather forecast like your breakdown/ analysis forcast for Summer 2012 of a few days ago, and you can be my heroe.

    Plus, isn’t the answer a bit dependant on what you read/view? Ya gotta start with unplugging that flat line medium we call TV.

  19. billywitt says:

    As usual, it is a simple solution for many to simply blame the media for all of life’s problems. But news outlets are like any other for-profit organization. They produce what they know will sell. The celebrity driven news is a direct result of what consumers are most interested in. Thats not to say that news organizations shouldn’t have an obligation to try and “push” science and engineering articles into the spotlight, even if just as an act of public good. But ultimately they need to pay ‘da bills. We all, as consumers, need to look in the mirror before we immediately start throwing stones at the most convenient target. Unfortunately I suspect most consumers are perfectly happy with the celebrity driven status quo.

  20. Old Gringo Stan says:

    Sanders Kaufman make a good point, at least in the South….very few biology teachers in the South believe in evolution….while their Northern and East and West coast counterparts consider them biased by religion and unable to be rational on that subject…….

  21. Dr. Prunesquallor says:

    I think Jay’s comment is pretty much right. The days when a Bohr or an Oppy can change the fundamental nature of our understanding of the universe with a chalkboard and sliderule seem to be over. Now it takes multi-national consortia and Tevatrons.

    Hawking is probably the closest thing to a contemporary scientist-celebrity due partly to his popular writing and partly to his phenominal capacity to overcome a catastrophic disability. Sagan was another, but again because of his extraordinary communications skills rather than any breakthrough contribution to science.

    As far as engineers go, the obvious Gates/Jobs types who jumped at the tipping point of the computing revolution were able to make individual names (and lots of money) for themselves. Rutan is a cult hero among many in the aviation field because he was an early adopter of composite structures for aircraft (and now spacecraft) and recognized the unique design options they afforded.

    What I draw from this is that for scientists to become celebrities, there must also be a charisma or personal story – not just brains. For engineers, the combination of luck and intelligence of percieving that certain technologies are at a “tipping point” is needed for individual success (vast fortunes don’t hurt either).

  22. ttyler5 says:

    Sanders Kaufman,

    ” I blame the growing Evangelical Christian movement.

    They HATE scientists almost as much as they hate their own government.”

    As you are a liberal democrat propogandist

    — who writes a **hate speech blog** against Christians and Republicans here at the Chron

    — I guess you would come up with something that dumb!

  23. .

    this is off topic but very interesting

    Internet in 1969 !!!



  24. KLT says:

    Meiczyslaw -that was a great article which applies to much more than just this particular topic. Advertising is the *tool* which has always kept the populace within a society moving in a certain direction in life. It’s as influential in shaping popular culture, as it is subtle,…as mentioned in this excerpt:

    “glamour is much more than style. It is a potent tool of persuasion, a form of nonverbal rhetoric that heightens and focuses desire, particularly the longing for transformation (an ideal self) and escape (in a new setting).”

    When you look back on the history of advertising you’ll find that the commercial/celebrity industry has “fleeced their sheep” everybit as much as any influential politician or religious leader…I guess that’s why the 3 elements of CPR (Commerce + Politics + Religion) have always been intertwined throughout history.

    Of course, if you’re a Christian you know the real source behind that powerfully persuasive combo, but I won’t say it, lest I tempt the wrath and fury of SciGuy’s very own Devil’s Chaplain: The Self-Proclaimed Proponent of Science and Reason. =)

  25. Outspoken says:

    What sells in the Main Steam Media is “DRAMA.” So-and-So went out and had an affair behind his wife’s back. Fantastic! Wait, we’ve got pictures of her dressed up as a Nazi?! Awesome! Lets cover every angle of this 24-7 ad-nauseum. What does the wife think? Oh, the DRAMA! What excuse does the husband have? Oh, the DRAMA! What do our viewers think? Oh, the DRAMA !$!$!$!$!

    Want to see some good stories about scientists and engineers? Check out the following:



  26. Meiczyslaw says:

    Of course, if you’re a Christian you know the real source behind that powerfully persuasive combo [...]

    I’m a (soft*) atheist, so disagree with the source. That said, just because I disagree with the ultimate rationale doesn’t mean that I think Christianity is wrong about the symptoms. There’s a lot of weird things** hard-wired into human beings, and 4,000 years of experience dealing with those issues has led to a lot of practical answers — even if we still don’t understand why humans behave the way they do sometimes.

    *One of my favorite lawyer quotes is “Absence of evidence is not necessarily evidence of absence.”

    **Positive, too. One of my favorites is how altruism provides a rush — we’re wired to look out for each other.

  27. PDQPete says:

    Nowadays a working definition of a “celebrity” could be “any person deemed interesting enough to photograph vomiting outside a nightclub.”

    My fellow nerds, is this something we really want?

    –PDQPete, going for that seventh Lemoncello…

  28. ttyler5 says:

    Back to Eric’s question, “Why are engineers and scientists no longer celebrities?”

    “Rock Stars of Science”


    ” Here’s an unlikely trio. Pictured from left to right are Rudy Tanzi, Joe Perry, and Francis Collins.

    ” Joe Perry is the lead guitarist of Aerosmith. Is this the line-up of a one of Perry’s new musical solo projects? Hardly.

    ” Rudy Tanzi, Ph.D., is a professor of neurology and genetics at Harvard/ Massachusetts General Hospital. He’s discovered genes linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

    ” Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., will likely be the next director of the National Institutes of Health. He is the former director of National Human Genome Research Institute, leader of the Human Genome Project, and recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

    ” Can scientists be turned into celebrities like rock stars? Apparently GQ Magazine thinks so with the launch of a new campaign called “Rock Stars of Science.” The effort is backed by ….”

    Read the full article:

  29. Joe says:

    “I blame the growing Evangelical Christian movement. They HATE scientists almost as much as they hate their own government.”

    Posted by: Sanders Kaufman

    Yeah buckcvs, whatever. I’ve read your hard left rants all over the place here at the Chron. You really are amusing, but basically shallow and full of hate towrd anything that doesn’t fit your agenda. I still can’t believe you actally teach in Texas or anywhere else. But at least when the kids grow up they’ll know what a fool you are, and challenge your emotion filled religious hatred. It’s ok though, most can see right through your foolishness. Read some Newton, will ya? I’ll bet you don’t let your students read any of that, do ya?

  30. hunter says:

    Sanders Kaufman represents well the ignorance of many.

  31. ttyler5 says:

    PDQPete wrote: ” Nowadays a working definition of a “celebrity” could be “any person deemed interesting enough to photograph vomiting outside a nightclub.”

    My fellow nerds, is this something we really want? ”

    I’ve seen a number of Scientists vomit outside nightclubs, Pete! :^D

    And no, it isn’t pretty! :^D :^D :^D

  32. Joe says:

    “bucky” Kaufman, go somewhere else to yammer with your same old diatribe we see you yammer on about in the comments blogs every day with your hateful liberal bent. It really gets old. And update your picture in the comments blog too, you’re not a kid anymore but you still think like one.