72-year-old Nobel prize winner Tim Hunt has caused controversy by saying laboratories should be segregated along gender lines. However, there is evidence to suggest that science should be more exclusive. It should exclude old men

Tim Hunt, 72-year-old Nobel laureate, is currently at the centre of a big controversy for his remarks about women in science. He argued that gender-segregated labs were the answer, because “they cause men to fall in love with them and cry when criticised”. In his defence, Tim Hunt is the product of gender-segregated education himself, and it clearly hasn’t left him with a warped perspective on the opposite sex.

Cry, cry, cry (for backwards Nobel laureates) Read more

This is another high-profile example of disparaging comments about women from people supposedly smart enough to know better. As well as being generally offensive, Hunt’s comments also don’t stand up to logical scrutiny. Humans lack the power to consciously make someone fall in love with them, hence Tinder exists. Also, if large numbers of people always “cry when criticised”, then you’re doing criticism wrong. If someone always blisters when you burn them, that’s not a sign of incompetence on their part. And even if this were the case, that female scientists always cry when criticised, tears are basically saline anyway, and laboratories get through gallons of saline so this could save a fortune! At a time when science funding is constantly under threat, as well.

But Hunt does have a good point in spite of himself; science would be better off all round if certain people were kept out of labs. And those people are old men. Here’s why.

Old men are too belligerent

Science is, above all, a communal effort. Now more than ever, scientific progress is achieved through collaboration on an international scale. But collaboration is much harder to achieve and maintain when you’ve got someone involved who can’t stop spouting offensive views or being antagonistic (consciously or otherwise) to the people whose help and support is integral.

Tim Hunt is just the most recent example. Look up any controversy or offensive opinion these days, and 95% of the time it comes from an old man. These people simply cannot be relied upon to engender the spirit of teamwork and mutual respect that is essential for conducting long-term complex research projects for the betterment of humanity. They clearly don’t even like humanity that much.

Science would be much better off if old men were left out of it and restricted to places where their outdated and offensive views were less disruptive, like running political parties, or entire countries.

Old men don’t get on with each other

As well as putting off other people with their unsettling views, old men don’t even cooperate well with each other. Ask any scientist how many departmental meetings or conferences they’ve been to which were dominated by two or more professors engaged in heated arguments over who is right about a certain niche subject or theory. It’s probably several, and it’s almost always aged male professors who are doing it.

Science thrives on questioning and criticism, but there are limits. Constantly rehashing old theories or arguments instead of building on them doesn’t really help anyone, but time and again it’s the old men who dig their heels in and pursue their own agendas, constantly butting heads with others like them who think differently and seriously hampering progress in the process.

Old men don’t handle criticism well

Tim Hunt criticised female scientists because they “always cry” when criticised. While this would be somewhat disruptive if true (which it isn’t), this is still a far less problematic response than holding an intense lifelong grudge against someone who criticised you, and doing your best to make their life difficult and miserable. Anyone who’s dares to criticise a prominent old male scientist should brace themselves for this sort of treatment.

Old men have been known to maintain vendettas that last decades. How is this conducive to scientific progress? Holding grudges is bad for you. If old men can’t just let go of slights or negative feedback, they shouldn’t be involved in something as regulated and disciplined as science. They’re clearly just too emotional.

Old men are bad at science

If you look at the data, it is difficult to argue that old men are just bad at science. Even if they’re high-achievers, they still often come out with unscientific guff, and a look at any list of scientific scandals shows it’s mostly older men who are behind them.

Also, the numbers don’t lie. There is a growing concern that most of the research findings published today are false, and most professors and research leaders are old men. So if we have mostly poor science and mostly old male science leads, this must mean that old men are poor at science. Logic, that is. They should be removed from the environment so other more-competent people can take over.

And yes, it is true that Tim Hunt has since said his comments were “meant to be humorous”. As an added bonus, why not check the comments below for people furiously arguing that this a complete vindication of Hunt’s comments while simultaneously taking this ridiculous joke article 100% seriously. People are fun like that.

Dean Burnett is ahead of the curve and started being rubbish at science while still a relatively young man. He regularly demonstrates his incompetence on Twitter, @garwboy

