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Election brain gain?
Some scientists think Europe can entice scientists away from the US after the Bush victory | By Ned Stafford
November 23, 2004

Germany and other European countries should make the most of the results of the US presidential election to woo back researchers from America, a leading stem cell researcher has suggested.

Last Tuesday (November 16), the German business daily Handelsblatt quoted Hans R. Schöler as saying that Germany now has a "unique opportunity to keep scientists in Germany and recruit top scientists from around the world" because of the current "not exactly rosy" research and political situation in the United States.

Schöler, head of the Department of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Biomedicine in Münster, told The Scientist that he had talked to more than 20 American researchers who were worried about the direction of American science, especially embryonic stem cell research, in the coming years under a Bush administration.

"After the election, the people I have been talking to are just in shock," Schöler told The Scientist.

Schöler believes that Germany and other European nations should try to recruit top scientists by improving the research atmosphere, which would include increased funding and loosening of restrictive embryonic stem cell laws.