Some European scientists are growing increasingly concerned at the potential wider ramifications of what they see as political interference with scientific freedom in the US.

Scientists interviewed by The Scientist in recent days said they believed that continued political interference from the Bush administration would not only have a negative impact on the quality of US science, but eventually on global science.

Carl Johan Sundberg, vice president of Euroscience, told The Scientist that in the short-term Europe would benefit from a politicized atmosphere in the US by attracting promising young scientists from the Middle East, Asia, and Eastern Europe, who in the past have gravitated to the US. But he worries that in the long term, Europe and the rest the whole world would lose if the dynamic quality of US science deteriorates.

"The US is the most important country in the world when it comes to science,”...