Dirty, sexy, physics - how science on TV became cool

Physics is not supposed to be sexy. It is supposed to conjure up images of school labs, of Beaker from The Muppets, and of scientists with receding hairlines and jam jar specs.

All of that changed when the floppy-haired, doe-eyed Brian Cox gazed sagely out of our TV screens for the first time. Since Wonders of the Solar System arrived last March, the 43-year-old professor of physics has amassed more than 37,000 Facebook fans, and his new four-part series Wonders of the Universe has become a Sunday night hit.

"Brian Cox is sexy, sexy, sexy," squawked one enthusiastic fan on Twitter. And the rest of the UK seemed to agree. Last year a spike in applications for university physics courses and a 50 per cent increase in telescope sales at John Lewis provided the first indications of the subject's renaissance. This year even the stars are wrapped up in the universe thanks to Christopher Kane's £955 galaxy printed dress, seen on everyone from Carey Mulligan to Alexa Chung to Samantha Cameron.

There is a new generation of approachable scientists waiting to build on the success of Wonders of the Universe. One of these is Jim Al-Khalili, a professor of Physics at the University of Surrey.

"Brian is doing a fantastic job in making science cool. He's been on Top of the Pops and worked at the Large Hadron Collider," says Al-Khalili. "But also programme-makers see science documentaries almost as the new cookery programme. It's a sort of food for the brain."

Al-Khalili, 48, is working on two science programmes. The first of these is the BBC's Everything and Nothing, starting on March 21, which he promises will be similar to Wonders of the Universe "but with a little more science".

Oxford University professor Marcus du Sautoy is also hosting his own show this autumn. The Code is a three-part series about how maths underpins our world. "I think it's scientific stories which are exciting people as much as the people presenting it, if not more so," says the 45-year-old Professor for the Public Understanding of Science. "There's a recognition that science has some amazing stories to tell about where we come from and where we're going next."

Those telling the stories are important too, he says. "We've got a great new generation of people who can communicate those stories beyond the scientific community."

Jenny Wong, the 28-year-old director of Guerilla Science, is on a mission to engage people with science in fun new ways. "We're trying to embed science within culture, and we thought the best way of going about that would be to take science out of the lab and set it free," she says.

Guerilla Science prepares shows and takes projects to festivals such as The Secret Garden Party, Latitude and Green Man to challenge misconceptions about science. Its latest event is a Dirt Banquet at a secret London location in April, to confront guests' assumptions about the nature of dirt.