Legislation called the SAFE Act now being considered in the U.S. House of Representatives would ban federal funding to scientists who have any form of collaboration with China.

That might seem, with the growing competition between our two nations, a reasonable thing to do. Clearly, the U.S. needs to limit collaborations and other activities by US scientists and universities that could advance China’s military advantages. It also needs to be careful not to support or encourage activities that could give China major commercial advantages.

However, a blanket ban on collaboration in fundamental science would be much too broad and could cause great harm to U.S. science. We don’t know how this research will benefit us nor which research will prove to have direct applications, but we know that

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