Key stages 3 and 4: introduce examples of scientists whom students may have heard of to counteract images in films. Show Life Story (a Horizon special). Go to http:news.bbc.co.uk1hiscitech2804545.stm - you’ve got a good opportunity with the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the double helix. This is a gripping film in the way it portrays the human interactions between scientists, and the injustice that was done to the role of Rosalind Franklin. Invite a scientist to talk to students and give an idea of the reality of being a scientist. Discuss the reasons why people are taken in by negative film images.

Briton Jocelyn Bell Burnell informs me that it was not the abduction by aliens of a family member that led her to search out pulsars (which she discovered), originally thought to be signals from little green men. Here is a lovely person doing science because of her passion for physics.