Professor Sir Tim Hunt had won every honor in his field, from Fellowship of the Royal Society to the Nobel Prize. But last month, the pioneering biochemist was dismissed from his post at University College, London (UCL). Why? Because, speaking at a lunch to celebrate female scientists in Seoul, he had introduced his remarks with a clumsy joke about finding it hard to work with women in the laboratory because he fell in love with them and they cried.

One of the women present, a lecturer called Connie St Louis, complained on Twitter about his “sexism”, triggering the usual lynch mob. By the time the professor had returned to London, his career lay about him in broken shards.