Daily Mail accused of insulting top female scientists

College condemns race and gender comments about experts who appeared on Newsnight to talk about origins of universeUniversity College, London, has written an open letter of protest to the Daily Mail's editor, Paul Dacre, about a "profoundly insulting" item that appeared to question the credibility of two of its scientists.A piece in the Mail's Ephraim Hardcastle column on Wednesday used their appearance on BBC's Newsnight on Monday to comment on the possibility of a new era in understanding the origins of the universe to have a dig at the programme's "Guardian-trained editor, Ian Katz", who, it said, "is keen on diversity".The item added: "So, two women were invited to comment on the report about (white, male) American scientists who've detected the origins of the universe – giggling Sky at Night presenter Maggie Aderin-Pocock and Sri Lanka-born astronomer Hiranya Peiris."The discoveries from the Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2 (Bicep2) experiment, a telescope at the south pole, were announced by the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts.David Price, the college's vice-provost for research, said: "The implication that anything outside of her academic record qualifies Dr Peiris to discuss the results of the Bicep2 study is profoundly insulting. She is a world expert on the study of the cosmic microwave background, with degrees from Cambridge and Princeton. Dr Aderin-Pocock is a highly-qualified scientist and enginee...

Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 21, 2014 Category: Science Authors: James Meikle Tags: The Guardian Astronomy National newspapers World news UCL (University College London) Newsnight Media Higher education Daily Mail BBC & magazines UK news Gender Science Space Source Type: news