Make Science, Not War, Scientists Say

“I believed then, and now I believe those contacts are of high importance,” he said in an email. “However, what Putin and the Russian military have done in the name of the Russian Federation is so serious that I strongly support the decision of the CERN Council.”

What all of this means for individual scientists at CERN is unclear. In a note to the lab, Dr Gianotti stressed that no one has been sent home and that the ongoing cooperation is being maintained, at least for now.

Joseph Incandela, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara who led one of the teams that discovered the Higgs boson, explained it in detail. “The people here can continue to come to the lab and do their work,” he said. “People from Russia can still come here by more circular routes if they get permission from the Russian authorities. They are not restricted to CERN.”

However, Lisa Randall, a theoretical physicist at Harvard, noted in an email: “Given the lack of flight and presumably the device transfer will not happen, I am uncertain about the impact of the continuation. continued cooperation”.

According to Mike Lamont, CERN Director of Accelerators and Technology,

So the promise of a narrow bridge of communication persists. In an email, Michael Turner, a physicist with the Kavli Foundation in Los Angeles and past president of the American Physical Society, emphasized the value of these informal working relationships. “Scientists are often the most influential members of their societies, and their interactions are a reminder” of the humanity of all individuals, even those who are, he notes. people in countries where the leaders are doing outrageous things”.

“That being said,” he added, regarding Russia’s actions, “I think the whole world is trying to figure out what to do.”