Talk about distracting lab conditions! That’s me* at the long-since-defunct Kewalo Basin Marine Mammal Lab. (commentary below)
This isn’t standard STEM Girl Friday fare (thank goodness!). You might have already heard about 2001 Nobel Laureate, British Scientist Tim Hunt’s recent comments, but I couldn’t let them pass without a comment or two of my own. Hunt was speaking at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea when he commented, “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.”
The 72-year-old isn’t against “girl” scientists, by which I think he’s referring to actual grown women, the issue is the distraction they cause. Therefore, he favors single-sex labs.
Interestingly, if rats had their druthers, the single-sex labs would be run and staffed exclusively by women.
Alas, lab rats don’t get a say in the matter. But women scientists have a voice and are taking to Twitter texpress their outrage using the hashtag #DistractinglySexy. Mashable has compiled a collection of on-point tweets with photos. here, but you can find the latest clicking the linked hashtag above.
For his part, Hunt seems to have taken a #SorryNotSorry approach based, I’m guessing, on his own failed attempts at maintaining his pure relationship with both science and female lab partners.
Midway through a college term more than 20 years ago a TA told me that my genetics professor said I was “too cute” to be a scientist. That was decades before #DistracinglySexy, or even Twitter, was even a thing. And it was just one of the confusing, discouraging messages I received as a student. Which is not to say that’s why I’m sitting at my computer wearing my pajamas yoga pants in the middle of the day instead of Doing Science. Or is it?
Really, though, what prompted me to write is a below-the-belt reaction (um, poor choice of words, Kim) based on a photo and comment that a friend posted on Facebook.
Take a look at this photo of Hunt thank you IFL!). Look at it.
Do you see the multiple strands of hair snaking their way out of his nose? How can you not? How distracting is that? I would have a really hard time working with that going on near me. It would be hard to crunch numbers, focus on detailed measurements or pretty much do anything. I might even cry because I’d be thinking, Doesn’t anybody care enough about this man to suggest a little personal maintenance?
Maybe Hunt is on to something, after all. But instead of limiting a lab to one gender, maybe each lab should also be limited to a single person, with blank soundproof walls, no windows, and no internet connection. Just a scientist and hir science.
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In other news, Slate posted an interesting article discussing the importance of sewing and other low-tech crafting in the STEM education. Do these things receive less attention and have less STEM cred than high-tech making because of the types of makers they tend to attract (i.e. women and people with less money)? Read and let me know what you think.
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*I used this as an excuse to break out a favorite old photo from my days working at a marine mammal lab, but I meant that the dolphins were the distracting ones. I mean, how cute and smiley are they? It wasn’t until I was sharing this post on Facebook that it dawned on me that the lab workers, men and women, walked around in bathing suits–sometimes bikinis and Speedos, even. We still got our work done. Considering the tropical atmosphere and number of men and women between the ages of 18 and 30 working at the lab, and the fact that we worked in our bathing suits, the atmosphere was surprisingly focused on research. It can be done!