Out went the fun and in came a return to the dry lecture-as-TV-show style of presentation - this time with added facial hair, comb-overs, tweed jackets, and flares.

BBC: Patrick Moore to Brian Cox - A history of TV science

Dr Newman and his colleague, Dr Christina D Buesching, will be making a presentation about the role of volunteers within science at the Earth Institute's annual lecture at the Royal Geographical Society on Thursday evening.

BBC: Volunteers 'vital to science data collection'

Speaking to a standing-room-only lecture hall lined with dozens of students and faculty members, he spent the last minutes of his presentation reading off the names of students, post-doctoral fellows, collaborating groups and funding sources from a projected slide that listed even more of them.

CNN: Top brain scientist is 'philosopher at heart'