Not being a reader of British red-top tabloids, I assumed that the word is mostly only used in an ironic or quaint way, similar to how The Register uses it. It turns out that the Institute of Physics researched the use of the word and found that the word, “boffin” has negative connotations and conjures an image of a scientist being male. They concluded that it puts young people off choosing science as a career so they campaigned to ask the red-tops to kindly refrain from using the word. Only the Daily Mirror agreed to stop using the word.
Yesterday, there was a meta-discussion on the use of the word “boffin” on https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48661535
Not being a reader of British red-top tabloids, I assumed that the word is mostly only used in an ironic or quaint way, similar to how The Register uses it. It turns out that the Institute of Physics researched the use of the word and found that the word, “boffin” has negative connotations and conjures an image of a scientist being male. They concluded that it puts young people off choosing science as a career so they campaigned to ask the red-tops to kindly refrain from using the word. Only the Daily Mirror agreed to stop using the word.
Institute of Physics campaign page: https://www.iop.org/strategy/limit-less/journalists/media-gu...