This article, in which Paul Nurse compares Elon Musk with Isaac Newton (“a nasty piece of work”), leaves me completely speechless.

SellaTheChemist

This article, in which Paul Nurse compares Elon Musk with Isaac Newton (“a nasty piece of work”), leaves me completely speechless.
I don’t even know where to start.

https://www.ft.com/content/088b804f-15e0-4a8e-b32d-146a826b8d6c?shareType=nongift

bert hubert 🇺🇦🇪🇺🇺🇦

@sellathechemist I once lauded Nurse for his excellent piece https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02480-z (paywalled) and some biologists who knew him pushed back on it in a way I could not make sense of. Perhaps he's been an asshole for a while now.

Tim Waterman

Methinks Paul Nurse and Elon Musk BOTH need to go.

wobweger :verified:

@sellathechemist
the guy need to read #socrates
well reading alone is not enough
he shall understand what he wants to tell us - he never will

these characters are the root cause of your problems.

Chris_Swan

@sellathechemist Speechless. Lost all credibility with me. In my subject ( Computer Science) , I have promoted publications from the Royal Soc to my students. This doesn't sit well at all.

Elisa Fadda-🔺

@sellathechemist an absolute disgrace and awfully timed, if there was any good time for legitimising EF FRS status. Someone at the RS should really reflect about what are the *real* innovations that EM gave to humanity worth an FRS... Obviously aside from an obscene AI tool that publicly strips and humiliates thousands of women of any age, or destroying USAID causing death of millions of human beings, or supporting the return of fascism to power, or polluting space with trash...

Frank

@sellathechemist https://archive.ph/w3TnY

Paul Stevenson

@sellathechemist #notallpauls

mtnrbq65

@sellathechemist

Bloody hilarious comments section, or at least the parts that could still be seen through the stain of privilege and hooray Henry boorish contributions.

What a BS outfit the RS is.

Scimmia di Mare

@badscientists cosa ne pensi?

@sellathechemist

SellaTheChemist

@bert_hubert Doing good science is not barrier to being "nasty" - Nurse says so himself. But I think having some moral compass and boundaries is important in an adult, let alone someone who holds such position of leadership and responsibility.

SellaTheChemist

@frank Thanks!

Disisdeguey🔻PalestineAction🇵🇸

@sellathechemist "academia should avoid making judgements about fellows"
"But he is a Nazi, sir!"
"Well.. (smiles and looks at the floor)"

Toni Aittoniemi

@sellathechemist Like nazi salutes and child porn? Okay there, buddy.

Antonio Patriarca

@sellathechemist There are many examples of terrible people making great contributions to the world, but their contributions doesn't cancel all the pain and damage they caused. But at least these people have actually did something themselves. All EM ever did was putting money in things he believed would give him power and money. He is just a rich fascist prick who likes to steal other people successes and see our society burn.

BashStKid

@sellathechemist Extremely disappointing. Hard not to speculate if the RS has sold its standards, and the standards of the fellows, for a few beads and trinkets, let alone thirty pieces of silver.

Graeme 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

@sellathechemist The thing is, all musk is, is someone with money. He isn't a scientist, doesn't understand any science, and is anti science at times. So there is no reason fro him to be a member except kowtowing to money. The fact that he's a nasty misogynist fascist is just final insult.

LionelB

@sellathechemist

Of course Musk's $$$ have nothing to do with it. What a terribly vulgar suggestion.

Eggs now in different baskets.

@sellathechemist Perhaps time for the UK Royal Society to consider posthumous membership for Josef Mengele?

Flo

@sellathechemist next step would we to introduce a Royal Society Peace Price...