Eggheads are demanding they’re no longer known as boffins.
They claim the “baffling” term is putting youngsters off studying science and becoming top boffs.
Boffins from the Institute of Physics want the term, which is commonly used for scientists and experts, to be binned.
The brainiacs say one in five of its members consider the term to be an insult.
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Rachel Youngman, the deputy chief executive of the IOP, told the Daily Star: “We would like that term to be put in the bin. It has a different connotation. It’s old-fashioned.”
But many people use it as one of endearment – especially as mega-minds are responsible for saving lives and sending us to space.
And social media is awash with people proclaiming, “hooray for boffins”, especially over the latest breakthroughs in medicine and the hunt for alien life.
The IOP, which represents more than 21,000 UK physicists, is calling for the word to be scrapped as part of its ‘Limit Less’ campaign, which aims to get young people to study physics.
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Elijah Beevor, a physics and astronomy student at the University of Hertfordshire, said: “Overall, the current image of a scientist portrayed is not helpful.
“I encourage everyone to bin the boffin.”
A not-particularly-bright boffin at the Daily Star said last night: “We bow to no one in respect of our boffins.
“But the berks have buggered it up with this Bin the Boffin befuddlement.”
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