MOSCOW: The first law of scientific research - that it costs big money - is as immutable as the laws of gravity. So no surprise that Russian science fell into a black hole due to economic upheaval in the decade following communism's collapse. Economic freedoms that transformed Russia for good and ill brought despair to laboratories and research institutes as budgets were slashed and bright young scientists fled abroad while others (most famously the mathematician turned oligarch Boris Berezovsky) moved into banking and other businesses.
MOSCOW: The first law of scientific research - that it costs big money - is as immutable as the laws of gravity. So no surprise that Russian science fell into a black hole due to economic upheaval in the decade following communism's collapse. Economic freedoms that transformed Russia for good and ill brought despair to laboratories and research institutes as budgets were slashed and bright young scientists fled abroad while others (most famously the mathematician turned oligarch Boris Berezovsky) moved into banking and other businesses.