Who will think of our poor, über-sexy foreign scientists?

[krasnoludek]

The New York Times had an article today titled "Scientists Fear Visa Trouble Will Drive Foreign Students Away". It certainly caught my eye, being in academia and given our recent visa experiences in France. So I clicked on it. My first reaction was a bellow of laughter. The picture they used to pimp promote the article completely reminded me of my friend Elena's best joke. In one quick sequence, she would take off her glasses seriously, pout her lips sexily and proclaim, "I em Russian feeezeeeseest!" It was a spot-on imitation of the sort of "foreign scientists" you see in James Bond and other Hollywood movies: they're nubile, long-haired, thickly-accented and in a form-fitting white labcoat with provocative wire-rimmed glasses for that "intelligence" effect.

I'm sure this foxy Belarussian biogeneticist in the NYT article is actually quite intelligent, but I couldn't help but laugh at the visual use of her body of research.