Science asks big challenging questions about the nature of the universe.
Answering these questions often requires collaboration across scientific disciplines and national
borders.
But what happens when countries are isolated, at war, or just don’t get along…
what do scientists do then?
In some areas of science it’s impossible to do research without collaborating with
another country.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (or UNESCO) reported
that in 2015 an average of 1 in 4 published scientific papers listed some form of collaboration
with foreign scientists, and that number continues to grow.
For instance, the high altitude, lack of atmosphere and dry conditions in certain parts of Chile
make it one of the best places on EARTH to view activity in outer space.
This is one reason that it is estimated by 2020, 70% of the global infrastructure for
astronomical observation will be located in Chile.
With the rest of the world’s astronomers dependent on their facilities for sensitive
measurements good relations are critical if research in astronomy is to advance.
But consider what happens if countries have a challenging political relationship.
US relations with Cuba for instance have been famously strained since the 1960’s.
While exchange of scientific information was never expressly forbidden, US embargos on
everything from travel to trade between the two countries has made it difficult for Cuban
scientists to access instrumentation and equipment that scientists outside the country take for
granted.
This is because modern reagents and scientific equipment are often manufactured in, or contain
parts, from the United States which exempts them from sale to Cuba.
Even with these challenges, Cuba is a superstar of science.
They were the first country to receive validation from the World Health Organization for eliminating
mother-to-child transmission of HIV, and their lung cancer vaccine was an early success for
cancer immunotherapy.
These innovations made formalized scientific collaboration between the US and Cuba politically
more attractive and in 2014 the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Cuban
Academy of Sciences signed a historic agreement to “seek opportunities for sustained cooperation.”
In order for them to fulfill that promise, the two countries had to agree to work together
outside of the laboratory, and this newfound scientific relationship coincided with a general
easing restrictions between the US and Cuba, including a relaxation of travel restrictions
and a historic visit to Havana by President Obama himself.
But of course, 2016 feels like a long time ago, and the current US administration doesn’t
have the same approach to collaboration.
So it remains to be seen if these agreements are allowed to continue.
Where the public may perceive hostility, scientific collaboration still continues… because scientists
find greater value in, well, science.
In other parts of the world, international collaborations like the Human Genome Project
and the particle accelerator SESAME in the Middle East (which includes unfriendly countries
like Iran, Pakistan, and Israel) are pushing humanity’s knowledge of the universe forward
and creating havens of cooperation in a time of increasing nationalism.
When it comes to highly visible, international “moon shot” projects like CERN’s Large
Hadron Collider or the International Space Station-- a project reliant on cooperation
between Russia, the United States and others -- the whole world is watching.
The sheer scale of investment puts these massive collaborations in a delicate diplomatic position
that can make them critical points of de-escalation and compromise in otherwise gridlocked negotiations.
They can also inspire us to acknowledge that we’re all just bunch of humans stuck on
a rock racing around the sun at 67,000 mph (108K km/h).
And in the words of Louis Pasteur: “Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs
to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world.”
As another example, we’re working on a deep space gateway with Russia, go here to learn
more and don’t forget to subscribe for more science in your day!
Did you know that during the cold war, The US and USSR were working together for science?
When the Soviet Union's Cosmos 936 mission launched in 1977, seven U.S. biological experiments
were onboard.