Female scientists are firing back hilariously on Instagram after sexist comments by a nobel prize-winning scientist

Nobel Prize-winning scientist Tim Hunt recently resigned from his honorary post at University College London because of backlash from comments he made about his "trouble with girls" working in labs.

And now, female scientists are using social media to make their own point about what the 2001 Nobel Prize winner said.

Hunt was speaking at the World Conference of Science Journalists in South Korea when he made the controversial comments.

"Let me tell you about my trouble with girls," he was reported as saying. "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."

He also called himself a "chauvinist pig," AFP reports. He's since resigned from his post at UCL, which was honorary and didn't carry a salary. He also apologized and called saying what he said "a very stupid thing to do."

"What was intended as a sort of light-hearted, ironic comment was apparently interpreted deadly seriously," he said.

Scientists have co-opted the hashtag #devastatinglysexy on Instagram and Twitter, where they're posting self-portraits in their lab whites. Here are some of the best from Instagram.

"Few things are as #distractinglysexy as breathing your own coffee breath while grinding tiny iron mineral crystals into tinier iron mineral crystals." - @squeezatz_haderach

"I'm just so #distractinglysexy when I look awkward as heck." - @thevintagescientist  

"#tbt to that day when I was #distractinglysexy at the lab." - @carolikesbooks

"Can't get any work done around women." - @planet_of_awesome

 "We were sobbing because men criticized us so we started drinking." - @dangerousxdani 

 "Sooo, this post is dedicated to Tim Hunt for his distractingly sexist comments in regards to women in the lab. It's a bit ironic that he won a Nobel Prize for studying protein molecules and their role in cell division as that's what I'm currently researching." - @caitlinsiehr

 "Sometimes it takes something crappy like #timhunt's sexism to trigger something awesome like the hilarious and actually really brilliant #distractinglysexy pics" - @sugru

"[A]fter #TimHunt's comments on 'gir' scientists I'm going to have to let me personal views bleed into my yarney Instagram." - @boraknits

"Building robots. 3 years in a basement lab, but labmates haven't fallen in love yet, lol!" - @spaceturing

"Plaster is fun and goopy to work with #andverysciencey #sexyandiknowit #distractinglysexy." - @archaeoamos

"Stealing the sexy spotlight from my mice yet again." - @sarahldevos

"Doing some #distractinglysexy polymer synthesis this afternoon." - @sallywinklr

 

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