Muppet scientists have the right chemistry

EXETER (Reuters) - Muppets Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker have defeated Dr Strangelove, Dana Scully of "X Files" fame and Star Trek's Mr Spock to be voted the country's favourite screen scientists.


They beat their closest rival by a margin of 2 to 1 and won 33 percent of the 43,000 votes cast in an Internet poll published on Monday.


Spock came in a distance second with 15 percent followed by The Doctor, from Dr Who, who garnered 13 percent. Scully, the only woman in the poll, came in sixth.


"They are accessible, humorous and occasionally blow each other up," said Roland Jackson, of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BA).


The balding, white-coated Honeydew and flame-haired, bulging-eyed Beaker created an array of crazy gadgets on the popular television show.


"They're the kind of scientists you would like to be but never quite dared to," said Alan Slater, a scientist at the University of Exeter in southwestern England.


The poll, sponsored by the BA and the BBC cult television website (www.bbc.co.uk/cult), gave the public five weeks to choose their favourite scientist from a shortlist of 10 that included Dr Evil from the film "Austin Powers", Dr Frankenstein, Frank N Furter, of the "Rocky Horror Show Picture Show", Dr Emmett Brown, of the film "Back to the Future" and Q of James Bond fame.


Results of the poll were announced at the start of the week-long BA science conference here

link : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/040905/80/f1z8y.html