A headline in today’s New York Times proudly proclaimed, “Three Americans Share Nobel for Work in Cell Biology”. The three winners discovered telomeres, thus solving a longstanding puzzle involving the ends of chromosomes. Apparently the implications of their work extends to cell division in both cancer and aging, which I must say, I’m very pleased about.
The article goes on to describe how two of the recipients were women, and how rare an event this is, with only eight women having won the Nobel Prize for Medicine previously. “Fantastic”, I thought, as science needs more women role models for young women today.
Then the article took a slight turn – it seems that two out of three recipients are immigrants. Dr. Blackburn came to the US in the ‘70’s, because it was “notably attractive as a place to do science, but goes on to suggest that “while America is still a magnet for foreign scientists, one shouldn’t take that for granted.”
Having previously blogged about the implications of an unenlightened immigration policy (“US Immigration Policy & Global Competitiveness”), I read on with interest.
Indeed, the point that was made by Dr. Szostak was that the world was now much more competitive in science, and that “we have to work a little harder to attract people from around the world and make sure they want to stay here.”
But as noted by Dr. Cech, former president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, onerous visa requirements are benefitting European countries especially, as “Even now, there is an implication when foreign scientists apply for visas that they should be distrusted, denied several times, and should have to hire lawyers and jump through a lot of hoops.”
Brains, like bits, abhor friction. It doesn’t matter whether the electrical impulses are synapses firing or semiconductors crunching data, electricity travels the path of least resistance. If US immigration policy makes it too onerous for today’s brilliant young minds to move to the US, these future scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and yes, even Nobel Prize winners, will no longer be able to proudly call themselves “American”.
That’s my .02!
Martin Suter
(martin.suter at iplicensing.net)
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