Thanks to his elegant prose, biologist Prof Richard Dawkins began his celebrity career with a book about gene-centred evolution, The Selfish Gene, in 1976. And as his list of popular science books has grown, so has his public image of an untouchable, idiosyncratic intellectual.
The media-savvy Dawkins, who holds the chair for the public understanding of science at Oxford University, has set himself up as the poster-boy for scientific rationalism against religion, as seen in his most recent book, The God Delusion.
A British Sunday newspaper supplement recently captured the glamorous public image of Oxford neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield with a cover shot of her posing on a grand staircase and sporting a red dress next to the headline 'The Prof Wears Prada'.
An accomplished scientist, broadcaster, author of popular science books and campaigner for women in science, Greenfield has set up biotechnology companies to work on brain conditions such as Alzheimer's disease. But, acutely media-aware, she has also carved out a stylish image that differentiates her from the more traditional white coats and grey old men of science.
She has appeared in Hello! and courted the press following the break-up of her marriage to Oxford chemistry professor, Peter Atkins.
Twinkly-eyed, moustachioed fertility expert Lord Robert Winston blazed into superstardom by presenting numerous television series, including Child of Our Time, and writing popular books about human biology. The British Labour peer also appeared on an advertising campaign for a commercial brand of so-called "clever milk" with added omega-3 fats, but the ads were pulled when the UK Advertising Standards Authority ruled
that claims the milk would boost a child's intelligence were unsubstantiated.
Biologist Stephen Jay Gould researched the relatively obscure subject of land snails, but wrote prolifically on wider topics like evolution, philosophy and the history of science. Based at Harvard University, his essays could spark heated debate among academics while also engaging a wider public, including the creators of The Simpsons, who featured him in an episode and posted a dedication to him after he died in 2002.
However, the same all-encompassing, Renaissance view of science and its history that won over the public meant he was sometimes regarded by other academics as a dabbler, an example of the 'Sagan effect' that can befall celebrity scientists.
