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EDITOR’S PICK British views of Russian This answer apparently
Have a nice day now and how do you vote? science and its invisibility resonated with my aunt. I knew
that she had been granted the
From Martin Giles, opportunity to do research in
almost equally divided, should the London, UK Moscow in the 1960s, and asked
power of the government be equally James Harkin recounts how what she had got from it. Her
divided, or should it strongly reflect “bumbling British boffins” have answer: “Tuberculosis”.
the most popular view? It appears become a standing Russian joke
the UK electorate prefers the latter, (23/30 December 2017, p 53). From Hugh Jenkins,
judging by reactions to power-sharing In the 1980s, I was visiting an Stourbridge, West Midlands, UK
governments and the referendum on aunt in Soviet-dominated Poland Having read every issue of New
an alternative vote proposal. This is when it was under martial law. Scientist for the past two years,
what first-past-the-post delivers. She – a member of the Polish it is almost as if Russia has ceased
In 1998, the report of the UK Academy of Sciences – asked my to exist as a force in world science.
Independent Commission on the view, as a chemist, of Russian As a Russian speaker and former
Voting System compared the choices research publications. I said that student of Soviet science policy,
offered by single transferable vote to they had uses, but weren’t places I frequently spot Russian names
From Dave Neale, “an over-zealous American breakfast one looked for imagination. in your reports, but nearly all of
Truro, Cornwall, UK waiter going on posing an indefinite If a Russian laboratory owned a them are based outside Russia.
Ron Baker declares that the best number of unwanted options… both spectrometer, you could be sure It would be interesting to know
voting system so far devised is the an exasperation and an incitement to that it would publish painstaking what has caused this virtual
single transferable vote (Letters, the giving of random answers”. compendia of spectra for ordinary disappearance. Has science there
16 December 2017). One cannot I do believe in electoral reform, inorganic compounds. If I needed suffered a catastrophic reduction
choose the best or worst voting but I also suggest that such subjective to find such a frequency, I could in funding? That would lead to a
systems without making subjective issues are for political rather than be sure that a Russian would have brain drain, and a concentration
decisions. When the electorate is scientific debate. published it. of effort in defence and security.

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52 | NewScientist | 20 January 2018