The Hungarian parliament has voted to restructure its science sector to give government full control. Academics sharply criticize the move, fearing an end to free research in the country.
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Hungary's National Assembly has adopted a controversial bill to vastly restructure the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (MTA).
Human Rights Watch reported Tuesday that 15 academic institutes were to be removed from the Academy and placed in a newly established state research network.
The plans, which have been known since early in year, have repeatedly provoked protests from researchers and academics at home and abroad.
Changes ahead
The changes are expected to come into force at the beginning of September. The supervisory board — the Eotvos Lorand Research Network (ELKH) — is to consist of 13 members. Six to be named by the Academy of Sciences and six by the Ministry of Innovation. The head of the committee will have the casting vote — appointed by Hungary's Minister of Innovation Laszlo Palkovics.
The creation of the ELKH will deprive the Academy of important financial resources, including scholarships for scientists and funds for research projects.
Additionally, the Academy could lose its grant, enshrined in law, to finance its running costs.
The new law will also establish a National Science Policy Council, to be headed by Palkovics. This body will advise the government on innovation and research topics.
Resistance falls on deaf ears
The Academy of Sciences has unanimously spoken out against the amendment. Its president Laszlo Lovasz said in a statement ahead of Tuesday's vote: "We kept on negotiating relentlessly, but our efforts proved futile."
Lovasz concludes that the future scientific landscape is "unsuitable for the research community" and that the law violates "European principles."
Open letter
Palkovics, on the other hand, argues that by restructuring the sector, the government wants to make Hungary more competitive within the scientific world.
The minister justified the move with reference to German research institutions he says fulfil a similar task to the soon to be established ELKH: The Leibniz Association or the Max Planck Society.
Representatives of the German science organizations see the situation quite differently, emphasizing their independence from politicsin an open letter. They were critical of the bill, siding with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
'Violation of democratic principles'
Numerous critics from the world of politics have also spoken out. Udo Bullmann, leader of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, accuses Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban of wanting to silence critical scientists.
"We are horrified to see Orban strike a new blow against scientific freedom and democracy in his country," Bullmann said. He is "obviously out to establish a flawless autocracy in Hungary," he added.
Since 2017, the Hungarian government has repeatedly taken steps to restrict freedom of scientific work within the country. Since then, the work of the Central European University, financed by US philanthropist George Soros, has been severely limited.
As a consequence, the CEU will gradually move to Vienna and start teaching there from fall 2019. By 2023, the entire university will have moved to Austria — a direct result of Orban's plans to restrict scientific freedoms.
Inspirational women in science
Many women have provided a rich source of inspiration for young scientists - both male and female - down the years. They've made remarkable discoveries, often despite ingrained sexism within their chosen field.
Born in 1815, Ada Lovelace was the daughter of the famous poet Lord Byron. A gifted mathematician, she is said to have written instructions for the first computer program in the mid-1800s. She is considered the first person to realize that computers, still not a reality, had potential beyond mere calculation. Lovelace is known chiefly for her work on Charles Babbage's proposed "Analytical Engine."
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A giant in two fields
Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. Not only that, she was the first person to win one twice. Born in Warsaw in 1867, she became a naturalized French citizen. Curie shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics - for research on radiation phenomena - with husband Pierre and physicist Henri Becquerel. She won the 1911 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for discovering radium and polonium.
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Unwinding the double helix
Rosalind Franklin never received a Nobel Prize, although many believe she should have. Biophysicist Franklin was an X-ray crystallographer whose practical work was heavily relied upon by James Watson and Francis Crick in their discovery of the DNA double helix, which won the Nobel prize for medicine. By the time the prize was awarded, Franklin had died of ovarian cancer.
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Insight into insulin
British biochemist Dorothy Hodgkin was a contemporary of Franklin, and the two shared their expertise with one another. Hodgkin developed crystallography techniques to give an insight into the structures of biomolecules and won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, becoming the third woman to do so. Five years after winning, Hodgkin was the first person to decipher the structure of insulin.
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A cellular fountain of youth?
Australian-American Elizabeth Blackburn won the Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine in 2009 for her work on telomeres - the protective tips that lie at the end of our chromosomes. Blackburn co-discovered the enzyme telomerase, which allows telomeres to be replenished. Telomerase allows cells to go on dividing, so it appears to influence aging and could have implications in cancer research.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/S.Merrell
Shedding light on chimp life
British primatologist Jane Goodall is considered the world's leading expert on chimpanzees and has spent decades studying the social and family interactions of wild chimpanzees in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania. She came up with names for many of the animals, drawing criticism from some who accused her of anthropomorphizing.
Image: picture alliance/Photoshot
'The lady of the cells'
Born in Italy in 1909, Rita Levi-Montalcini had her career cut short by Benito Mussolini's laws banning Jews from academia. Undeterred, she set up a lab in her bedroom and studied the growth of nerve fibers in chicken embryos. After the war, she worked in St. Louis, where she isolated Nerve Growth Factor from cancer tissues. She shared a 1986 Nobel Prize for that with colleague Stanley Cohen.
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Neutron stars and green men
In 1967, Northern Irish physicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell discovered a signal that pulsed at a regular rate. The signal, detected by radio telescope, was dubbed the "little green man." It turned out not to be alien communication, but a rapidly spinning neutron star - the first "pulsar" to be detected. In 1974, her supervisor jointly won a Nobel Prize for pulsar work. Bell Burnell was not a recipient.