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Most of the giant media-loved scientists have died at this point - Sagan, Feynman, Salk, Pavlov, etc, and are finally starting to drop out of public-rememberance.

The 20th century had a lot of movies featuring (fictional) scientists, like Dr. Strangelove and Men in Black, too.

They were represented quite a bit.

Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye are very big in pop culture. My daughter is 10 and came home singing "Bill Bill Bill Bill, Bill Nye the Science Guy" because her school still plays old episodes. NdT had a prime time series on a major network. I'm not gonna suggest they're "as big" as Sagan or Feynman was, but they're really big.

> Kids never saw scientists. I never saw a scientist when I was a kid. And I was a child fairly recently.

It wasn't always like that. If you were kid longer-ago, scientists were seen all the time.

Between what you and Mononokay wrote, I think my interpretation is the likely one. Kids are just drawing generic people, and not scientists specifically.

I saw one this morning at the bus stop. Long unkept gray hair, bulgy eyes, ankle-length labcoat, unconventionally late.

Well, more conventionally unconventionally late.