Standing up for scientific freedom at a time of war
In a strongly-worded editorial in the journal FUNCTION, Ole Petersen and Alexei Verkhratsky applaud the actions of scientists who oppose the Russian war against Ukraine.
The editorial cites examples where members of academia, both collectively and as individuals, have condemned acts of Russian aggression. They include Nobel Prize winner, Sir John Eccles FRS ML who denounced the crushing of the Prague Spring (1968) by the Soviet Union. In 2022, national academies – including the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina – have issued a statement that calls out the ‘unprovoked attack against Ukraine’. Academia Europaea has made a similar declaration.