Scientists are supposed to have hair as messy as Einstein's. So it was a surprise to tune into coverage of Nasa's Mars landing last night to find one of the mission controllers sporting a multi-coloured mohawk. A flight director on the Curiosity mission, Bobak Ferdowsi, has shaved the sides of his head, left three inches of black hair on top, flecked it with red and blue, and then dyed a few yellow stars on to part of the stubble. It's not rocket science, but it looks great.
Ferdowsi gets a new haircut every mission. Previous incarnations range from flamboyant blocks of red to relatively sedate quiffs, and this particular one was voted for by his colleagues. In the past, Ferdowsi's follical exploits were just a Nasa in-joke. But after his exposure last night, the world's hippest astrophysicist is now an internet meme. Within an hour, Ferdowski had a dedicated Tumblr – Fuck Yeah Bobak Ferdowski – which collated the many mohawk-themed drawings, tweets and blogposts that Ferdowski's newfound fanbase had created. "Proof that Nasa has a time machine," read one offering. "PUNK SCIENCE!" said another. By this morning, Ferdowsi had gained 10,000 Twitter followers – and only became aware of the mayhem after the robot had landed. As one example of the meme had it: "Becomes an internet sensation. Too busy landing a robot on Mars to notice."
