Professor Stephen Curry is leading the campaign to remove Elon Musk as a Fellow of the Royal Society. He’s the author of an open letter calling for his expulsion that, so far, has attracted 2,300 signatures.
Elon Musk was made a Fellow of the Royal Society, a self-governing body of many of the world’s most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists, in 2018. In its 364-year history, only two Fellows have been expelled, one in 1709 for not paying his dues, and another in 1775 for fraud. To expel someone for their political views, which is essentially what Curry is urging the Fellows to do, would be unprecedented and would, needless to say, do far more to bring the Royal Society into disrepute than anything Elon Musk has ever said or done.
Curry is not a Fellow of the Royal Society. He’s a university EDI bureaucrat – a ‘diversitycrat’ – with a long track record as a cancel-culture warrior. He’s also one of the architects of disturbing plans to embed compliance with anti-scientific and discriminatory EDI theories into research funding in the UK.
During Curry’s tenure as Assistant Provost (EDI) at Imperial College, he led the charge against academic freedom and in favour of Critical-Theory based EDI at Imperial. Some of this was comical, such as the following suggestion on Imperial’s website about how to be a good ‘LGBTQ+ ally’: “Offer to accompany a trans or non-binary person to the bathroom, so they do not have to face any potential transphobia alone.” But other aspects of Imperial’s EDI policy were nakedly authoritarian, e.g. the College said it had ‘‘zero tolerance” for “transphobia”, which was defined as “denying [someone’s] gender identity or refusing to accept it”, such as ‘misgendering’ a trans person (woke-ish newspeak for using a person’s correct gender pronouns).
Curry is a vocal supporter of gender self-ID. Writing to the Minister for Women and Equalities in his role as Assistant Provost (EDI), he linked Imperial’s EDI strategy with gender self-ID (a policy which has now been dropped by both the previous and current Government). In doing so, he made no mention of women’s rights, which was surprising, given that only around 20% of Professors at Imperial are female. You might think the Assistant Provost (EDI) would spare Imperial’s female academics a thought. But at Imperial on Curry’s watch, the rights of men who identify as women were prioritised over the rights of women.
As an activist for gender self-identification and an exponent of cancel culture, Curry had a pop at J.K. Rowling, naturally. Curry added to the abuse Rowling received following her decision to speak out on women’s rights by endorsing a vicious thread accusing her of “transphobic dogwhistles” and attacking her for supporting Maya Forstater.
Forstater’s employer was found guilty of discrimination against her due to her expression of gender-critical beliefs – a.k.a. the belief that biological sex is real, important, immutable and not to be conflated with gender identity. Last year, Professor Jo Phoenix won an Employment Tribunal case against the Open University on the same basis. You might think that, as Assistant Provost (EDI), it would be part of Curry’s role to uphold the Equality Act rights of Imperial staff and students with gender-critical beliefs. If so, you would be disappointed.
When Imperial’s Vice Provost (Education), Simone Buitendijk, tweeted about the gender debate, linking to an article in the Spectator highlighting the tension between trans rights and sex-based women’s rights, she was forced to issue a grovelling apology.
Professor Curry claimed to want an inclusive environment where all members of Imperial are free to express their views. All except gender-critical women, apparently.
Curry wrote to the Secretary of State at DSIT in 2023 denying that an issue exists with data collection on sex, ignoring the fact that social statisticians have repeatedly highlighted the problem of not recording people’s biological sex when collecting data. There is no sign that Curry consulted with experts prior to this public political intervention.
It is clear that Curry sees EDI as a weapon to impose radical progressive ideology – what Orwell would have called a “smelly little orthodoxy” – on universities and stifle debate. The views he expressed were always extreme and have not aged well. His role as an architect of the 2019 Research Excellence Framework, which allocates funding to universities, should be seen in this light. UK research excellence matters. It should not be placed in the hands of idealogues. Curry’s targeting of Musk is of a piece with his intolerance of any dissent from prevailing radical progressive nostrums. If disagreeing with elite groupthink is a good reason for kicking someone out of the Royal Society, shouldn’t it have kicked out Sir Isaac Newton instead of making him President?
It would be particularly egregious to expel Elon Musk, given the scale of his achievements in space travel and electric cars. I’m reminded of that scene in Gulliver’s Travels when the Lilliputians try to tie up the hands and feet of the outsized visitor from another world.
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“a diversitycrat”. Thank you my Lord – genius!
This is their version of ‘logic’. A tad worrying;
https://x.com/DiBartoloJoseph/status/1890830122254585978
Well worth reading – the past comes back to haunt Curry:
Professor Stephen Curry – “Half-Arsed” Dumbing Down of Science Posted on August 2, 2010 by ChildHealthSafety
The modern “dumbing down” of British science is well demonstrated by the inept efforts of Professor Stephen Curry on his Nature “science” journal’s blog. Curry was incensed by a well written UK Guardian newspaper article by professional journalist Simon Jenkins and responded childishly with abuse. Worse still Curry’s efforts were defended in The Guardian by physicist and Vice Dean Professor Jon Butterworth of London University ……..
Read on for more
Hilariously two of the particularly ridiculous aspects of the article quoted above about Curry and Jon Butterworth is Curry replied [see it here and weep] and Butterworth excruciatingly embarrassingly cannot tell the difference between an accredited established qualified British university scientific expert and an internet troll with no qualifications:
“It seems no one has had the heart to tell Butterworth that a “scientist” blogger he quoted in his Guardian piece [as an example of the entire scientific world and in defence of his pal Professor Stephen Curry] is in fact none other than the former unemployed barman and administrator and well known internet “troll” James Cole [aka jdc 325 and 325 jdc].”
So much for the ivory towers of Imperial College and the ability of these two jokers to tell the difference between science and nonsense.
Mogwai – here is a tip for you. Copy the image link and post it as an attachment – here is your link:
Just a tiny glimpse into the severely twisted psychology of your average J.K Rowling-hater/TRA ( trans rights activist ). These aren’t even the super abusive, death threat-types she always gets;
“It’s women’s fault if trans-identified men commit sexual assault in previously women-only spaces, because by saying that’s a thing that happens, women put the idea in men’s heads.”
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1890829715616711036
”More Batshit Take of 2025 contenders flooding in. Coming up strongly on the inside we have ‘a higher percentage of trans-identified men are imprisoned for sex crimes, compared to men in general, because transphobes are mean to them.’
https://x.com/jk_rowling/status/1891130074365034804
The similarity to the Amir Mohammed quote in the article on Hermer is striking:
if Western societies objectify women by sexualising them then it’s no wonder that some Muslims have fallen into temptation
Especially the misuse of sexualisation.
Presumably you have in mind sexualisation which is not misuse?
But is it not the feminist point of view that what they call “objectifying” women [which I wonder is not the same thing as sexualistion] is per se wrong.
When is sexualisation OK?
Cambridge dictionary:
sexualization
noun [ U ] usually disapproving (UK usually sexualisation)
the act of sexualizing someone or something (= seeing someone or something in sexual terms):
the inappropriate sexualization of young girls
She is disturbed by the sexualization of today’s youth.
See
sexualize
Fewer examples
misuse of sexualisation?
The feminist perspective I take to be that the sexualisation of women [objectification] is objectionable.
What kinds of sexualisation are not misuse? Just asking as not clear to me if it is ever OK.
Cambridge Dictionary
sexualization
noun [ U ] usually disapproving (UK usually sexualisation) us
the act of sexualizing someone or something (= seeing someone or something in sexual terms):
the inappropriate sexualization of young girls
She is disturbed by the sexualization of today’s youth.
See
sexualize
Fewer examples
If the world was fair, he’d be slung out of the RS on his ear. This trans nonsense is absolutely against the core principles of the RS: facts not dogma.
He’s not in the RS. Perhaps he holds a grudge against them for that reason?
Guardian article, feature in Nature – Profs, Sirs, Dames, Professor Sirs, Lords and Ladies of the Realm ganging up on arguably the world’s most successful businessman, for telling them what they don’t want to hear.
FYI, Prof Curry is recently retired Prof of Structural Biology at Imperialist College. Plausibly considered (and considers himself?) one of the Great and the Good, although never quite scientifically good enough himself to be elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.
As the Royal Society’s own motto proclaims, all the way back to its foundation by pioneers of experimental science in 1662, that included Boyle, Hooke and Newton, “Nullius in Verba” – “Take nobody’s word for it.”
Which includes Prof Curry and cronies. Personally nowadays I’m more inclined to take the word of Mr Musk, over any number of scientific sages and stooges with fancy titles and strings of letters after their names.
As Groucho Marx always used to say, “I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member.”
Prof Quackboy – sorry but what the hell is a Prof of Structural Biology? Is there a Pretty Happy Dude degree for Unstructured biology? So Curry does nothing and Musk, well just about everything….
Google AI: Structural biology is the study of the three-dimensional structure of biological molecules. It combines biology, chemistry, and physics to understand how these molecules function.
Sounds legit; I suspect the DEI bit is a side hustle?
The Prof’s academic profile is here…
https://profiles.imperial.ac.uk/s.curry
…Yes, structural biology is a respectable branch of science – centred on use of X-ray crystallography (and other modern analytical techniques, such as electron microscopy and nuclear magnetic resonance) to understand biological processes.
In my experience of life sciences R&D, usually a caveat, in that the structural determination is of an experimentally isolated entity, rather than real-world in situ. There’s usually some element of computer modelling involved, but to be fair the outcome can be very powerful (e.g. in chemical optimisation of new drugs).
You are also right that Prof Curry seems a bit of a committee man (DIE, funding, strategy, etc). Floats some scientists’ boats, anathema to others (although they all have to play the funding game).
There are people who have learned scientific detail and can navigate their field and perhaps perform adequately in lab conditions.
Then there are those who ‘think’ scientifically.
In my view, the latter group is far smaller and the intersection in the venn diagram is a tiny sliver.
If it is just a single toilet then it doesn’t matter so much apart from the obviously unpleasntness of finding that large numbers of men don’t care about missing the hole. I think the main reason that we have lost sight of the sanctity and importance of the toilet is simply because we never talk about it and exalt it. Just look at the desolation of the utilitarian and denuded modern public toilet compared to the great piss palaces of the late nineteenth century. Vast rows of urinals of porcelain surrounded by opulent marble. Huge numbers of people of the same sex coming and going. A real sense of civic pride. So much goes on in toilets. People take a newspaper or their phone or laptop with them so that they can look at things as they’re taking a crap. Illicit sex and drug taking occurs, deals are made or simply moments of quiet reflection and meditation. None of this could happen if women were present because there are some things that you simply don’t do in mixed company.
What would change these people’s behaviour? What would wipe the smug grin off their faces? Fear. They are just human beings – and poor ones at that.
It looks like Curry should be the git who’s expelled. He is NOT a scientist in any of the traditional (400 year) ways of measuring acceptance.
Want a real surprise? He doesn’t post of twitter any more.
Follow the money? Imagine you are a university professor seeking government funding for a trip to Antarctica, or director of a museum seeking funding for a Lego exhibition. Two decades ago, you would have started any funding application with “Because of Global Warming…” Now that “global warming” (or its descendants) has become a toxic phrase (especially with the general population, if not with Miliband) the applications most likely to succeed begin with “Because of Transphobia…”
I doubt that the Science Museum really believes its heterophobic Lego publicity; I suspect it is adept at sprinkling DEI dust on funding applications.
You need all the light switched on then these demons just shrivel up. They got you to dim the lights everywhere so that you can’t see anything and feel too demoralised to stop them even if you could see. That is all that it is. If the lights were on they would succumb very quickly to the disinfectant.
Don’t worry our beloved Elon isn’t going anywhere. I even entertain hopes of this movement taking hold of the British civil service and chewing it up. In a sense it is inevitable if this movement isn’t stopped and I don’t see how the Brits can stop it but I have no doubt that they are working on six ways to Sunday to put a stop to it. I never thought I would live to see the day that they Yanks finally got out from under the yoke of the Brits. This tendency looks unstoppable to me. It is a beautiful thing then someone puts an end to the incessant yapping of the rabid poodle.
Excellent article, and inspired illustration out of “Gulliver’s Travels”!
Prof. Curry’s motivation is revealed by one sentence:
“Curry is not a Fellow of the Royal Society.” Nor is he ever likely to be.
It seems Curry was at Imperial when their statistical genius forecast millions of deaths from Covid, as he had done for CJD and AIDS – all forecasts turned out to be rubbish.
Which letter from the alphabet soup that Curry favours applies to dishonest philanderers who go out to leg a married woman during lockdown.
Not just any lockdown.
Oh no. That would be too ordinary.
It was a lockdown created by the fake science published by the philanderer concerned upon which the lockdown was based.
So let us see the full perspective of the true seriousness of Professor Niall Ferguson’s leg-over.
I wonder what Professor Curry would write about that on his half-arsed blogs.
“the Royal Society, a self-governing body of many of the world’s most eminent scientists, engineers and technologists”
and eugenicists.
Historically, at any rate.
It seems to me that it would be a blessing for this country (and the world) if Imperial College was closed down.
Nasty, small minded communist. Cancel the bstard
The Royal Society should be abolished. Not fit for purpose, another useless, rotten institution.
The Royal Society has lost it’s way. It believes in CO2 causes climate change to start with, and many other strange political causes. From outside it appears to be a nest for fools.