This morning I posted a note about a claim that a US journal refused the publication of an Iranian research study because it was conducted in Iran Are US science journals not allowed to publish Iranian research?
I asked the questions: When do political sanctions go too far? Is it smart to sanction science and scientific research?
To this post, I got responses like the following on Twitter:
Thats sad!.. Science should be separated from politics!.. he can really publish it in EU or some other better place than US.
that is sad, I am sure that we can do something in the international forum of physics in this case.I will write a letter immediatly.
that’s probably bcse of the sanctions, Europe may too. Unfortunate falling thru the cracks of politics.
I also received this very valid question from another Twitterer:
do you think it’s OK to to have scientific relations/research with israel for example ?
When I visited Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2006, I covered the issue of Palestinian-Israeli scientific collaboration and wrote this article: Israeli-Palestinian research: walking on eggshells.
You will see that scientific collaboration between “enemies” is complex and does not have easy answers.
What do you think? Does science transcend political tensions, occupation, and war? Should it? Or is science part of the systems within we work and live and thus it is – and perhaps should – be affected by them?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this through comments to this post or by responding to the following poll:
Inner Workings of My Mind 