Brain Drain, USA

The religious wing-nuts have come another step closer to moving the entire US back to the Middle Ages. The increasing interference in public policy of religious belief has already caused incredible damage to political discourse and to public school curricula. The policy implications are only just now becoming clear as the AP is reporting that the top two researches on the use of stem cells to cure cancer - after being heavily recruited by Stamford - have decided to do their research in Singapore.

Two government biologists heavily recruited by Stanford University have decided to work in Singapore instead, saying they will face fewer restrictions on stem cell research overseas.

[snip]

"If there were any way we could come to Stanford, we would do this in a heartbeat," the married couple wrote in an e-mail to the San Jose Mercury News.

Copeland and Jenkins are famous for discovering a way to accelerate the identification of cancer-causing genes in mice.

You might wonder at just how much damage this might do to cancer research in the US. The spread of information is increasingly rapid through the medical research community. And while that remains true, as far as it goes, there are other concerns besides the strictly academic.

At Singapore's Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology, any of the couple's discoveries would first be patented and used in Singapore.

You can thank BushCo.'s craven obeisance to their religious wing-nut base for this.