Meet three scientists who said no to Epstein

[demmiblue]

The warning signs included a web search, a mother’s doubts, and inklings of a “sexist attitude”

Hundreds of scientists are mentioned in the recent trove of released emails related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who was convicted of soliciting a minor in 2008 and who died by suicide in a New York City jail shortly after his arrest in 2019 on sex trafficking charges. Epstein relished connections with high-profile academics. Some took his money and used it for research; others were entertained lavishly at one of Epstein’s homes. Many of the scientists implicated in previous revelations admitted they had made a serious mistake. Several have been knocked off lofty professional pedestals since the latest releases by the U.S. Department of Justice (see sidebar, below).

Many of the scientists Epstein courted were already well-established and well-funded. So why didn’t they all just say no? Science talked with three who did just that. Here’s how Epstein approached them, and why they refused to have anything to do with him.

David Agus

University of Southern California cancer researcher and founding CEO of Ellison Medical Institute

Agus, a professor of medicine and bioengineering, never met or spoke with Epstein. But he spent 7 years saying no to him.

https://www.science.org/content/article/why-three-scientists-said-no-epstein

[Aviation Pro]

1. The fucking corpse had tentacles everywhere

….

[usonian]

3. Your spell-checker substituted tentacles for ...

[UpInArms]

2. Am so glad Aaronson listened to his mom

Instead of Googling Epstein, Aaronson, then 29, turned to what he considered an even more reliable source: his mother. She did some checking. “Be careful not to get sucked up in the slime-machine going on here,” she wrote back, adding, “Since you don’t care that much about money, they can’t buy you.”

Her wise counsel, Aaronson says, saved him from doing something he later would have greatly regretted. “If not for my mom, I might have gone and talked at a workshop to kick off the project,” he says. “I don’t think doing that would have made me complicit. But, you know, it would have been very embarrassing for me.”