A New Cold War?

For those of you who missed the Cold War and its 40 years of denunciations, mistrust, and calumny, it is difficult to understand what life was like in science during those times. Not the major affronts like the persecution of Sakharov and the ascendancy of Lysenko. It was the little things, like sending research letters to friends or wondering how to send journal subscriptions with any hope of their arrival, or the care package of pilfered Eppendorf tips and microtiter plates sent with travelers or even in "the Pouch."

Well, don't despair. Those times are still with us, courtesy of the US Treasury Department. The Office of Foreign Assets Control [OFAC] has decided that scientists in four nations cannot (yes, cannot) publish in American peer-reviewed journals.¹² These measures, which exceed the Cold War in their excess, seem progressive in scope and are accompanied by threats of dire penalties and...