Nobel prize-winning biologist Tim Hunt is finding out there can be consequences for making sexist comments in public forums. Days after Hunt said at a conference that women were distracting in the lab what with their constant sex appeal and crying, he was forced to resign from his job at the University College London and other positions he held.
"I have been hung out to dry," Hunt told The Observer in an interview Saturday. "I have been stripped of all the things I was doing in science. I have no further influence."
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I accept that my attempts at a self-deprecating joke were ill-judged and not in the least bit funny. I am mortified to have upset my hosts, which was the very last thing I intended. I also fully accept that the sentiments as interpreted have no place in modern science and deeply apologize to all those good friends who fear I have undermined their efforts to put these stereotypes behind us. [The Observer]
Meanwhile, women in science are responding to Hunt by showing him just how distractingly sexy they tend to look on the job. Julie Kliegman
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