Do you know a researcher who deserves the mantle āRock Star of Scienceā? If so, you can now make your nominations online, upload photos and explain your choice.
The website, launched today by the aims to raise the profile of biomedical research by associating some of its leading practitioners with luminaries of pop and rock.
Advertisement
The first round of scientific rock stars, including Nobel prizewinner , president of the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, and AIDS specialist , director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, are pictured in a (pdf) in this monthās issue of GQ magazine alongside musicians including and of the Black Eyed Peas.
Be my role model
āThe energy on the set was just delicious,ā says Meryl Comer, president of the Geoffrey Beene Foundation Alzheimerās Initiative, who came up with the idea and convinced the scientists and musicians to participate. She was motivated in part by a (pdf) that found that only 4 per cent of Americans could name a living scientist who could serve as a role model for young people.
was a fashion designer who died of cancer in 2004. Today, all of the profits of the company that bears his name go to his foundation, which supports research into cancer and Alzheimerās. For the GQ photo shoot, the scientists were dressed in the firmās designer menswear ā which for some was a novel experience.
āNeurologists are notoriously boring dressers,ā admits Alzheimerās researcher , dean of the University of Virginia School of Medicine in Charlottesville, whose children soon disabused him of any notion of having rock star status: āThey said: āAre you kidding me?'ā
Rock the genome
The scientists were chosen for their contributions to research. But the two geneticists pictured with Aerosmith guitarist ā Rudy Tanzi of the Massachusetts General Hospital, known for his discovery of genes for early onset Alzheimerās, and former Human Genome Project leader Francis Collins ā both have musical leanings.
Tanzi is a keyboard player who was once a minor rock star in his own right ā at the age of 17 he played with of Deep Purple fame, and continued to play in bands during his early scientific career. He still records jazz and ambient tracks in his home studio ā you can .
Collins ā expected to be nominated soon as director of the National Institutes of Health ā is more of a musical novelty act. Early performances with a āsupergroupā of eluded Ā鶹“«Ć½ās attempts to find incriminating video. But in recent years Collins has used invitations to speak at college graduation ceremonies to showcase a comedic rendition of My Way ā .
Sex, drugs and lab coats
While Collins clearly shouldnāt give up the day job, the newly anointed ārock starsā hope that the project will help associate fame and glamour with a career in research. āIām worried that in the US, so few young people are going into science,ā says Tanzi.
Tanzi and Perry ā who originally wanted to be a marine biologist, until dyslexia ruined his school career ā got on especially well, talking excitedly about the similarities between musical and scientific creativity. āI couldnāt get Joe Perry out of the room when I was trying to interview Tanzi,ā says Comer.
But is an ageing rocker the best hope of enticing young people into science? āYou may need to do another piece with musicians Iāve never heard of,ā Tanzi jokes.
