[oconnor663]

> If you do an image search of the word "scientist," you will likely get a flood of pictures of mostly white males wearing lab coats.

This appears to no longer be the case, at least for me in the US.

[gus_massa]

I agree, but most of the pictures look like stock photos or clipart. In my opinion, the first genuine photo are #16 and #19 (in my personalized order produced by Google image search, your numbers may vary). Anyway, the apparent genuine photos also have a good variation.

My complain is that most of them use white coats, so they look like Chemistry/Biology/Medical scientific. I never saw a Physics scientific with a white coat.

[DanBC]

What should a physicist stock photo / clipart show?

That's probably a useful niche: stock photos and clip art that represent actual science.

[gus_massa]

Stock photos of real science is hard, it's easier to put someone standing at the side of the equipment they use in the real scientific work.

For experimental physics I like the photos of optical tables ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=optical+tables+lase... ) and the racks with a lot of electronic equipment ( https://www.google.com/search?tbm=isch&q=physics+laboratory+... skip the first 10 images). They look like something you may find in a real laboratory.

Theoretical physics is harder, they look like normal people (i.e. mathematicians) until they start to talk about the real word. I prefer to discuss writing in paper, but for a photograph the only sensible solution is to write a bunch of slightly related equations in a blackboard.

(And there are many other science branches. For Geology you may put someone with a bunch of rocks, but I don't know a real geologist so it may be not a representative image.)

[Klathmon]

Yeah for me at least half were of women