Elon Musk stimulating the crisis of the Royal Society but remains a member

The members of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom urged the Elite Scientific Academy to “intensify his efforts to defend the sciences and the scientists” in the middle of an argument on one of his comrades – Elon Musk.

In the past nine months, many scientists have raised concerns about the behavior of the controversial billionaire, which has been described as “threat to science”.

A meeting on Monday evening did not lead to the expulsion of Mr. Musk, but it attracted the oldest scientific academy in the world in a political row of division.

The campaign to revoke the members of Mr. Musk focuses on suggestions, of an increasing number of scholarship holders, that the actions of the billionaire are “incompatible” with the company’s own code of conduct.

Musk supervised unprecedented financing discounts for scientific research in the United States, in his main role in the government’s ministry of effectiveness of President Trump (or DOGE).

Mr. Musk was also accused of having shared a disinformation on his social media platform, X.

In a statement after the meeting, the Royal Society addressed these questions, saying that the members who participated were particularly concerned about the fate of scientists in the United States, “in the midst of threats of radical reductions in research funding”.

Society has agreed to “look at other potential actions” to “counter disinformation and ideologically motivated attacks against science and scientists”.

The BBC understands that a letter will be sent to Mr. Musk de la Royal Society.

It has been 250 years that a member of the Royal Society has been ejected: the German scientist and writer Rudolf Erich Raspe, accused of theft and fraud.

Thus, the gap among the members, caused by Mr. Musk and his public declarations, could be a historic turning point for this most elite of scientific academies.

Two eminent scientists resigned from their protest scholarships – Dr. Dorothy Bishop from the University of Oxford and Professor Andrew Millar of the University of Edinburgh.

More than 3,300 scientists also put their names to a letter, written by Professor Stephen Curry, professor emeritus of structural biology at the Imperial College of London, who is not a scholarship holder, who expressed a “great concern” concerning the billionaire’s scholarship and the “continuous silence of the company and the apparent inaction” with regard to controversy.

Professor Curry told the BBC that he was happy that the company gathered scholarship holders to discuss these concerns.

But, he added that he was “disappointed that they have so far given a very short statement summarizing the meeting”.

“There is no mention of that (member) whose actions contrary to their code of conduct caused him”.

Dr. Dorothy Bishop, professor emeritus of neuropsychology of development at the University of Oxford and the first scholarship holder to resign on the issue, told BBC News that she had complained to the Royal Society twice last year.

“In the two times, they consulted the lawyers, and it may well be that lawyers were concerned about the prospect of legal action,” she said.

There are more than 1,700 Royal Society scholarship holders and more than 60 of them signed the letter from Professor Curry. Many others have expressed their concern about Mr. Musk’s behavior.

But there are many academics, researchers and scholarship holders of the Royal Society who do not wish to see the billionaire of division having his members revoked.

Professor Sir Andre Geim, winner of the Nobel Prize at the University of Manchester, said: “Musk is certainly an eccentric, but his achievements beat those of one of his detractors in royal society. Very few can say that they have achieved a similar life in their lives.”

Other scientists who spoke to the BBC have stressed that an attempt to suppress Mr. Musk’s communion could be considered as political interference and a reduction in freedom of expression.

But Professor George Efstathiou, of the University of Cambridge, rejected this argument.

The members, he said, “should at least have respect for the truth”.

“If someone has a contempt for the truth and says things that are manifestly false, it talks about their ethical standards,” he added. “It’s not political.”

Fiona Fox is Director General of Science Media Center, who works with journalists and scientists to promote “precise information and based on evidence” in scientific coverage. She was elected member of the Royal Society in 2023.

Fox told BBC News that she was concerned about what happened to the scientific community in the United States, but wondered if Mr. Musk’s ejection would achieve the general objectives of the Royal Society to educate and advance scientific research.

“There are terrifying things in the United States – delete data sets, remove the web pages from the data. It is knowledge. This is universally detained.

“There is a climate of fear in which people are self-censored. I mean, it’s absolutely terrifying,” she said.

Mr. Musk did not respond to requests for comments that BBC News sent via his companies, Tesla and Space X.