14 DAY TRIAL // This week, Nobel winning scientist Tim Hunt made a dreadful mistake that ultimately cost him his position as honorary professor at the University College London.
Long story short, the researcher made the mistake of being a little too honest when talking about his thoughts on having men and women scientists working together in the same lab.
“Let me tell you about my trouble with girls. Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticize them, they cry,” Tim Hunt told other researchers and science journalists attending a conference in South Korea.
Admittedly, these observations were simply meant as a joke, and when nobody got the punch line and folks responded with a raised eyebrow instead of the giggles Tim Hunt was expecting, the University College London honorary professor was quick to apologize.
Even so, this did not spare him mockery and heavy criticism. Au contraire, social media websites were flooded with comments and rants about how the researcher should have known better than share his sexist views on the proper way to do science with the world.
Twitter, for instance, was awash with photos of women scientists posing in their lab coats, knee-deep in dirt at one archaeological site or another, or operating lab equipment, all accompanied by the hashtag #distractinglysexy.
The observations weren’t just sexist, they were wrong
For starters, let’s play Captain Obvious for a minute or two and point out one very simple fact that for some reason Tim Hunt blacked out on when making his case about why women and men scientists should not work together: romance doesn’t just happen between ladies and gentlemen.
If having women and men in science share a lab is a bad idea on account that love could strike at any moment and interfere with their work, then by all means we should also make darn sure scientists in the LGBT community don’t get to work with anyone whom they might fancy.
Better yet, maybe we should have world leaders pass a law saying that no scientist can ever fall in love or have a relationship. We wouldn’t want them walking around with butterflies in their stomach and daydreaming about their latest crush instead of focusing on their work, would we?
While we’re at it, maybe we should ban women from working alongside men pretty much anywhere and not just in research labs. Who knows, we might all suddenly turn super productive, seeing how guys and gals would no longer be bumping into and distracting each other.
Neither of these ideas makes any sense, right? Just like Tim Hunt’s observation that women and men scientists shouldn’t work together or else romance might happen and affect their work doesn’t.
As for the University College London former-honorary professor’s comment that women are difficult to work with because they tend to cry when you criticize them, that’s even easier to dismantle.
If we’re going to talk clichés, then perhaps we should also reference that old legend that men tend to have a larger-than-life ego and don’t take lightly to having their flaws pointed out to them. Otherwise put, rumor has it that men aren’t exactly fond of being criticized either.
Consequently, working alongside them is not exactly a walk in the park. True, they might not cry when subject to criticism - as women do, according to Tim Hunt - but it’s not like they relish in the experience either. Once again, rumor has it.
The researcher really should have known better
Not that this is in any way an excuse, but the fact of the matter is that Tim Hunt is 72 years old. He was born and raised in an age when gender equality was more of an issue than it is these days, so maybe we should just cut him some slack.
Then again, this does not change the fact that, simply by being a Nobel winning researcher, he is a role model and he should have known better than make jokes about having men and women scientists work together in the same lab.
Times have changes, values have changed and Tim Hunt had no business saying science would be better off if research laboratories were women-free.