Cool astrophysicist shuts up climate change denier

It’s all over Twitter and even the creator of Harry Potter said the exchange validates the existence of the social media platform: Renowned astrophysicist Katie Mack posted the most elegant, yet powerful response to a climate doubter that tried to attack her credibility.

The exchange started when Mack tweeted the following:

Right away, she got an answer from Twitter user @gary4205, whose bio reads: Texan, Conservative Activist, Record Holding DragRacer, Editor & Publisher A Time For Choosing.

But Mack hit back with grace and elan:

The astrophysicist, who is based at the University of Melbourne, Australia, and has done research on issues such as dark matter, black holes, and cosmic strings at Caltech, Princeton, and Cambridge, says she is passionate about doing science outreach both through traditional means such as publishing articles in journals and magazines, and on social media.

This latest Twitter encounter got her 5,647 retweets and 16,100 likes on just a couple of tweets.

Haters continued to blast her:

But apparently trolls were outnumbered by defenders, including author J.K. Rowling, the creator of Harry Potter.

It got to the point where Mack actually had to defend poor Gary from a growing onslaught. At the same time, she found herself declining invitations to enter politics.