After mocking female scientists ("girls") as too emotional and suggesting they be segregated in the lab, Nobel-winning biochemist Tim Hunt is now "sorry"—but insists that he "just meant to be honest".
British Nobel laureate Sir Tim Hunt has apologised for suggesting "girls" should stay out of the laboratory because they distract men.
Discussing women in science, he told a conference in South Korea: "Three things happen when they are in the lab: you fall in love with them, they fall in love with you, and when you criticise them they cry.”
He told Today: "I did mean the part about having trouble with girls, I mean it is true that I have fallen in love with people in the lab and that people in the lab have fallen in love with me."
"It's very disruptive to science."
"I'm really really sorry that I caused any offence, that's awful. I just meant to be honest, actually."
The Royal Society, of which he is a Fellow, repudiated his remarks, which became more widely known after attendee Connie St. Louis and others publicized them on Twitter.
"Nobody was laughing, everybody was stony-faced," she told the BBC News Channel.
"The Korean female scientists who hosted us looked aghast and he just ploughed on for about five to seven minutes.
"It was just really shocking. It was culturally insensitive and it was very sexist. I just thought, 'Where in the world do you think you are that you can be making these kind of comments in 2015?'"
An embarrassing and revealing end to an illustrious career.
