An Oxford scientist has resigned from the Royal Society in an attempt to get Elon Musk kicked out of the prestigious science body over his support for free speech, climate scepticism and opposition to woke. The Telegraph has more.
As some of science’s most eminent figures gather to celebrate the Royal Society’s 362nd anniversary today, one of their number is likely to dominate conversation despite being several thousand miles away.
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla chief, is facing an attempt to oust him – having enraged a section of the Society with his scepticism about vaccines and man-made climate change and his controversial political views which they believe could bring the institution into disrepute.
The row hit the headlines this week when Dorothy Bishop, an Oxford University professor, revealed she had resigned as a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in protest at Musk’s continued membership of the organisation. Highlighting the Society’s code of conduct, which requires fellows to treat each other with courtesy, she said: “I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk.”
In the supposedly sedate, objective and calculated world of science, this is about as close to High Noon as you will get.
But not every FRS approves of Bishop’s decision, and some have told the Telegraph, anonymously, that they support Musk’s fellowship (bestowed on the entrepreneur in 2018 for his technological achievements, most notably in space travel and electric vehicle development). They will not voice their support in public, they say, for fear of being ostracised – not least due to the unpopularity of defending Musk’s position on climate change.
They also believe the Society – the world’s oldest scientific academy which boasts Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking among its former members – should stay out of politics. But, again, they are aware that a majority of fellows have been appalled by Musk’s support of Donald Trump and, in particular, his pronouncements condemning the Labour Government here in the U.K.
During the riots in the summer, the tycoon wrote on Twitter, the platform he owns and has rebranded as X, that civil war was “inevitable” in the U.K., and has since criticised Prime Minister Keir Starmer repeatedly – on everything from immigration policy to freedom of speech.
“It just felt having him in the Royal Society (RS) seemed such a contradiction of all the values of the Royal Society [and] I didn’t really want to have anything to do with it,” Bishop wrote on her blog on Monday in an attempt to explain her decision to quit.
“I just started to think, you know, the Royal Society seemed to be set up to make it very, very difficult to ever get somebody to resign or to actually get thrown out, and given all I know about Musk, it felt grubby, to be honest.”
The RS code of conduct says fellows should have “a spirit of openness, courtesy and cooperation”, “uphold the reputation of the Society” and “not engage in…discrimination, harassment or bullying.”
Bishop, however, is only prepared to extend courtesy so far: “What I said to [RS president, Sir Adrian Smith, and executive director, Dame Julie Maxton] was, ‘I’m not going to be polite and nice to Elon Musk, I’m afraid, so I can’t keep to the code of conduct.’”
The Oxford academic lists Musk’s crimes as “using social media for political propaganda… battling what he sees as the ‘woke mind virus’ and attacks on free speech.’”
Among other offences, Bishop listed Musk’s tweets on climate change:
“In 2023 Musk played down the seriousness of climate change, and, in 2024, participated in a bizarre interview with Donald Trump, which dismayed climate experts,” Bishop wrote.
She added: “Any pleasure I may take in the distinction of the honour of an FRS is diminished by the fact it is shared with someone who appears to be modelling himself on a Bond villain, a man who has immeasurable wealth and power which he will use to threaten scientists who disagree with him.”
The question of Musk’s continued fellowship of the Society first arose in August, when 74 fellows wrote to the institution, asking whether he was “a fit and proper person to hold the considerable honour of being a fellow of the Royal Society.”
The Society is understood to have taken legal advice in the wake of this letter. But Bishop claims “the lawyer determined that Musk hadn’t breached the code of conduct.”
Bishop states that signatories “were unhappy with this response” and pointed to a 2022 Musk tweet – “My pronouns are Prosecute/Fauci” – which they said was “antivaxx”, anti-LGBTQ, and put Anthony Fauci, the immunologist who headed America’s Covid taskforce under Donald Trump, “at further risk”, following years of attacks from vaccine sceptics.
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Yet another high brow, left wing, academic who believes that anyone who doesn’t believe that her views are superior to anyone else’s should be disregarded. Rod Liddle said recently (on a different matter), “I had thought that was one of the things – one of the important things – that distinguished us from those insufferable middle-class liberal lefties who cannot believe that other people have views which differ from their own. And if they do have those views then they are not merely wrong, but loathsome. And perhaps reprehensible. And that those views shouldn’t count because they should be illegal”. His comments describe, exactly, what we see here; Dorothy Bishop, essentially storming out in a huff because someone had the temerity of holding a view contrary to her own. Good riddance Ms/Miss/Mrs/whatever Bishop, in my humble opinion.
Marvellous, the whole damn lot of them can’t resign too soon as far as I’m concerned. Elon is absolutely right to call for the prosecution of Fauci. Rand Paul will incarcerate him sooner or later for crimes against humanity.
The vaccines have already killed millions, far more than the virus.
Elon is of course right about Climate Change. Most of the leaders across the world are laughing at the stupidity of the British following this scam.
The pompous posturing by Royal Society fellows is more likely to relate to their funding drying up rather than genuine concern for the citizens and climate.
Good riddance.
The only media that can be trusted to produce reality and differing opinions is X. The rest is bought and paid for.
God bless Elan Musk. Grateful to have him in our lives.
I thought Musk had restored free speech. Previously, it was the woke liberals preventing discussion of Lockdown and Climate Chane
Sorry, Dorothy who?
I’ve heard of the other Musk chap though…
It sounds as if the right person has left the society, maybe more from the cult of The Science(tm) will leave.
That has shattered my illusion’s, I thought you had to be bright to be a member of the RS. There is a lot I don’t like about a lot of people but, I am not so fool hardy as to want to cancel them. I detest some peoples attitudes to some things but, not all things. What a boring world it would be if we were all made in each other’s shadows and images. Frightening in fact. It’s the road to hell or, communism.
No great loss to the prestigious society!
So because someone doesn’t share your “views” they must be a terrible person, well here’s a thing dear, I agree with him and you’re not exactly a “scientist” are you?.
I wonder what the arrogant, “woke,” Prof Bishop has ever really contributed to the advancement of science?
I’ve never heard of her, so I suspect it’s the square root of SFA. But she obviously has a nice, cosy sinecure at Oxford which she is desperate to maintain …. so perhaps she was involved in the development of the AstraZeneca jab – now withdrawn because it was killing people.
What has ” her/ she” brought to the table?. Nothing of note I wager. The RS is an outdated concept that went down hill following Newton’s departure.
Rather than resigning why doesn’t she put a compelling case proving that anthropogenic climate change is real and thus prove E Musk wrong? Ah thought so….
This woman came from the scientific speciality that was used to push the Covid propaganda. So much so, that the majority of people still cannot accept that Covid 19 was 98% survivable and the jabs have a higher risk than Covid 19 in most age groups.
So she is either stupid or a useful State tool against the masses.
She probably doesn’t understand the depths of her own stupidity, which in her chosen field is irony at its best!
In science you question everything. So why can’t Musk question Climate Change?—-This silly Liberal Progressive (Communist) only reveals one thing by wanting rid of Elon Musk. That Climate Change isn’t and never was about science. It is a Political Agenda to be rid of Capitalism. It is about control of wealth resources and YOU, and Elon Musk in the new Trum Government puts a spanner in the anti Capitalist works. These idiots just don’t realise how absurd they are when they come way withe stuff like “We follow the science” or “The science is settled”——NOPE. What they mean is that they follow the Politics and that the Politics is settled.
She’s a professor of neuropsychology. Very convenient to have existing raw material to work on.
What other kinds are there?
The Royal Society has had a Professor specialising in language impediments in children, resign over Elon Musk’s climate science scepticism? Such a cancel culture academic is no great loss.
I don’t think she has ever realized that the motto of the RS is translated as ‘Take nobody’s word’.
So at last she has shown some wisdom in her decision. There seems to be several others who would do well to reflect on this.
Well, that has probably increased the average IQ of the remaining members.
The Royal Society has long been hollowed out by virtue signalling, hubristic Lefties.
Consider Geneticist Sir Paul Nurse, President of the Royal Society 2010-2015.
Nurse was one of the occupiers of Birmingham University’s Vice Chancellor back in the late 1960s and was already selling Socialist Worker on street corners, which he continued for many years. Now boasts of being a Labour Party Member for over 40 years.
As President of the Royal Society he was on telly a lot pontificating about Climate Change, or ‘Global Warming’ as it was then called.
I remember him being asked how much CO2 was already in the atmosphere. About 7% was the prompt reply. Actually then, about 0.035%.
Such an inspiration to us all. And he is VERY far from being the only one.
I’m trying to think what this woman has achieved compared to Musk (like or loathe him). The answer is SFA, so just go, nobody will miss you
The article says she is a scientist whereas the internet says she is a psychologist.
As much a scientist as Mystic Meg.
Musk is not a scientist, has not achieved anything in science, so should not be an RS member. He should be offered something by the Royal Academy of Engineering.
The RS has exceeded its remit, but not just via Musk, also via adopting a “position” on Climate Change, even if the entirety of its members agree, such “positions” are unscientific. Does scientific integrity still exist in such bodies?
This Oxford scientist should just quit and leave it at that, but the fact that she thinks the RS will ditch Musk in response suggests another defect with the RS.
TheRS had a position on continental drift back in the day,the proponents of the theory were treated in the same way as today’s climate sceptics.The rest is history.
Had it existed in Ptolemy’s time I suspect I know where it’s opinion would lie as to the relationship between the Earth and the Sun.
I am unsure whether an experimental psychologist can be truly classed as a scientist; equally I am sceptical of the decision to include psychology as a science as it seems to lack the objective nature that I have always considered a requirement for science.
Agree. There are too many variables involved in psychology for it to be a science for a start
Another nobody who has done nothing and said nothing worth listening to
“Prestigious”
Pah!
Her position is funded by the Welcome Trust. Say no more.
Your headline says “Scientist”. While I do not dispute that a psychologist/psychiatrist like Bishop may well merit the title Scientist she nevertheless appears to have no scientific qualifications to spout on about a subject upon which she frequently pontificates loufly and alarmingly: climate change.
Cat woman throws a strop. Hold the front page!
The saddest thing of this is this: “But not every FRS approves of Bishop’s decision, and some have told the Telegraph, anonymously, that they support Musk’s fellowship”. People too afraid of putting their head above the parapet because some dusty old philosophy professor from Oxford has taken offence. Come on, show some spirit, PLEASE.
Yes, that is the most offensive thing about this sorry tale.
It proves that they should remove the science bit from the RS. Hello, I’m a fellow of the society. We used to do science but now we do The Science(tm).