3 Hunky Scientists Slip Out Of Lab Coats To Test Heart Rates

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Try this test: Take 12 male scientists out of their lab coats. Place their pictures on a calendar. Display at bookstores. Record any changes in heart rates and cash-register receipts.

The "Studmuffins of Science" experiment is under way for 1996.

The calendar shows scientists skiing, swimming, lifting weights and - in the case of Brown University research scientist Robert Valentini - sitting on a bench in a tank top and shorts.

Valentini, 33, who studies techniques for healing damaged tissue, is "Dr. September."

New York-based journalist Karen Hopkin, who produces National Public Radio's "Science Friday," recruited the men. She admits she was motivated by self-interest.

"I guess I had the idea for the calendar so that I myself could meet guys," the single 32-year-old said. "Instead, I have this calendar."

Hopkin sought nominations through a journal of science humor called "The Annals of Improbable Research" and a computer service called ProfNet, an electronic bulletin board.

"I didn't really have a budget to go around the country and check out all the potential studs, much as I would have liked to, so I asked for photos," Hopkin said.

She also sought candidates on the Internet with the line, "If you have a Y chromosome and a Ph.D., you could be Dr. December!"

After receiving about 200 nominations and some 75 photographs, Hopkin said she and a "panel of experts" - some female friends - picked 12 winners and called them.

She cornered Valentini after he was a guest on a "Science Friday" broadcast.

"I was with my wife," Valentini recalled, "and I said, `What do you think?'

"She said, `For the sake of science, you have to do it.' "

Valentini claims the calendar serves a higher purpose than ogling.

"I think the ultimate idea is to make science and medicine more approachable for everyone in the public at large, to make scientists look like real people instead of nerds in the lab who have white coats and play with mice," he said.

In addition to its visual enticements, the calendar offers science trivia, important dates in science history, information about the researchers' work and their answers to questions like, "What's your favorite subatomic particle?"

The "Studmuffins of Science" calendar retails for $14.95 and is being carried nationwide by Borders bookstores.