I've banged on before about how I'm tempted by the designer-in-lab-coat look (all thanks to Vignelli and friends). But it's not just designers who wear lab coats, you know. They're a staple of any great man's wardrobe. Put one on and you're telling the world "hey, I'm smart and can be called upon to defend the Earth from atomic monsters or tend to your grazed knee … but I also succumb to occasional bouts of hubris in which I struggle to defy nature's law."

Let's have a look at a few, shall we? Yes we shall.

(Apologies for the rather man-centric nature of these case studies. Of course, the lab coat is a unisex fashion and utility item. It's just that ladies' role models in this field are … they don't have the same … just look.)