NIH Eyes Unprecedented Support Of Research In Soviet Laboratory

What happens when an eminent Soviet scientist, battling for reforms in his own country, must confront U.S. peer review? WASHINGTON -- The wave of perestroika in Soviet science has crossed the Atlantic and is lapping up on the shores of the Potomac. And one of the first landmarks it has encountered is the process of peer review. Two years ago biologist Valery Soyfer was waiting to emigrate to the United States after enduring nearly a decade of isolation for his human rights activities. At the

Jeffrey Mervis

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What happens when an eminent Soviet scientist, battling for reforms in his own country, must confront U.S. peer review?

WASHINGTON -- The wave of perestroika in Soviet science has crossed the Atlantic and is lapping up on the shores of the Potomac. And one of the first landmarks it has encountered is the process of peer review.

Two years ago biologist Valery Soyfer was waiting to emigrate to the United States after enduring nearly a decade of isolation for his human rights activities. At the same time, molecular biologist Maxim Frank-Kamenetskii was being pressured to tone down his criticism of the Soviet Academy of Sciences and his calls for major reforms.

But the world has changed a lot since then (The Scientist, Feb. 19, 1990, page 1). Today these two researchers, one finally in the U.S. and the other still in the Soviet Union, are awaiting word from the National ...

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