Why do scientists look like geeks?

Why is it that on any university campus you can identify what program a student is studying in within seconds just by looking at what they wear? The Arts and Humanities people are trendy and fashionable, sometimes over the top. The Business and Law school students are clean cut and a little conservative in their choice of wardrobe. The pretentious Med and Dental school students are wearing scrubs at all times. And finally the Science and Engineering crowd, essentially the biggest grouping of fashion misfits since the Village People.

Now for the most part I can understand the choice of wardrobe of those in each discipline. The Business/Law people need get used to projecting confidence and strength. Arts/Humanities hell, they come up with the fashions and are in touch with the world. Med/Dental students...ok, I can't understand that one, though maybe they should be called scrubs "strokes", as in stroking their egos. But for the Science/Engineering, why, oh why must they look so god damn goofy?

The only reason I have come up with is that it's tradition. I mean seriously, these people do rocket science, you think they could find a shirt that fits, or at least one that wasn't given to them by a company at a conference. I don't need to go into detail about describing the clothes they wear, you can picture it as accurately as I can explain it. Though I should state that there does seem to be a bit of a hierarchy of stylishness among the sciences. From top to bottom I would say it goes Bio-Sciences, Chemistry, Physics, Engineering, Comp-Sci and finally Math* (I wonder how many nerds will complain that I didn't include their discipline in the list?).

See the funny part is that the scientists are not oblivious to fashion, I mean sure they have minimal social contact, but they created the internet for crying out loud, they have seen images of stylish people. But as I found, if you wear fashionable clothes you will actually be questioned for it. I'm serious, I have had people wearing cloths that I would never wear in public derisively comment that I'm all dressed-up for wearing khakis and button down shirt! The same people get all uppity if you happen to dye your hair or cut it a style other than what was fashionable the decade you started elementary school.

It's strange to say this but it seems as though the majority of the science students actively try to cultivate the nerd/geek look. I can only assume it's tradition, very rarely have I come across a prof with a grasp on modern styles. I know the argument by the chemists is that they don't want to ruin their clothes...well that's what lab coats are for, and you know what, I only damaged one pair of pants from any kind of chemical spill, and that's because I wasn't wearing a lab coat. After all, by the time you're a grad student you should know basic lab safety and how not to spill. But seriously, why can't a comp-sci geek know how to dress himself, after all he's likely to be very concerned with the clothing choices of his WoW character (most likely a female elf).

I just don't get it. I would hope that all people would take some pride in their appearance, after all looking like you know what you're doing certainly helps in social situations...ah, there's the flaw, scientist and engineers only socialize with themselves...I guess it makes sense now, though it is oh so sad.

* Ranking of style was correlated to the percentage of women in the field, it may sound sexist but women always have more style then men.