Adelaide academic jobless after bad-mouthing Big Bang Contrarian
YOU wouldn’t think you would ever hear a university academic call somebody a “poo brain”, but yep, it happened.
University of Adelaide’s Michael Chen sent a very strange email last Friday night, insulting a man who challenged Einstein’s relativity theory.
Stephen Crothers, from Queensland, has long been a denier of Einstein’s theory and sent a research paper to academics, including Dr Chen.
Mr Crothers then received a number of email responses from Dr Chen, which he has since posted to Facebook.
The first one said “f— off c—” and then came one that was really bizarre.
“I mean you’re really diminishing what really smart people have been doing for the last 40 years idiot spam a***. Poo brain. D**k,” the email read.
Dr Chen then sent another email calling Mr Crothers scum.
It seems like a very immature response from an academic and Mr Crothers was stunned.
“I‘ve had things like this before, but this is a particularly bad case … you would think academic is not like this, but that’s the way it is,” he told The Advertiser.
Mr Crother’s views are obviously very controversial, he’s even got into an argument online with Gerardus ‘t Hooft, black hole specialist and Nobel prize winner.
According the The Advertiser, Mr Crothers was also previously studying a PhD but it got axed because of his opinions.
His views are especially contentious because Einstein’s theory of relativity was proved earlier this year.
Obviously unhappy with Dr Chen’s unintelligent response, Mr Crothers complained to the University of Adelaide.
“Such a response is astonishing, and far from befitting anybody holding an academic position at the University of Adelaide,” Mr Crothers said.
“As a taxpayer, and as the University of Adelaide is a public university, I request from you an explanation as to the behaviour of Dr Chen and what you intend to do about it.”
The Advertiser reports Dr Chen apologised not long after.
“I can’t apologise enough for my emails on Friday night,” he said.
“Both the language and sentiment was very inappropriate and were far from the standards of conduct I expect of myself, let alone those of the University of Adelaide.”
People commented on Mr Crother’s Facebook post of his correspondence with Dr Chen and said they were speechless.
It’s definitely not the first time Mr Crother’s has been criticised and he has been dubbed a “science troll” online.
The University of Adelaide, which played a part in proving Einstein’s relativity theory, responded to Dr Chen’s actions and told The Advertiser while academics could participate in a debate, the emails were “unprofessional and unacceptable”.
“The former staff member, whose contract recently expired, has apologised to Mr Crothers, has been counselled about his behaviour and is deeply remorseful,” the spokesman said.
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