Science needs friends

Lord May is not alone in noticing how US television portrays science in a more favourable light than in the UK ("It's science, Jim, but not as we know it", February 17). The sitcom Friends had an academic scientist as a major character. Ross Geller was attractive and relatively normal and his geekiness was endearing rather than sociopathic. Perhaps the lack of role models on TV is as much to blame for the public's mistrust of science as misrepresentation of scientific facts.

Ed Hollox Nottingham University