VOA新闻杂志--How the Ukraine War Is Hurting Russian Science

How the Ukraine War Is Hurting Russian Science

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has led Western nations to suspend tens of millions of dollars used to support Russian science projects. As a result, hundreds of partnerships¹ between Russian and Western organizations have been canceled or put on hold.

The changes are linked to heavy sanctions placed on Russia by European nations and others. The sanctions aim to punish Russia for its ongoing² military offensive in Ukraine.

Reuters news agency spoke³ with numerous scientists about the effects the war in Ukraine is having on Russian science.

The Russian Science Foundation's state-supported 2021 budget of $213 million was dependent on aid from India, China, Japan, France, Austria, Germany, and others.

A spokesperson for the foundation did not answer questions from Reuters about how the lack of partner financing would affect its work. The spokesperson said only that the foundation planned to "continue to support leading teams of researchers and their research projects."

Some of the affected⁵ projects involved the building of high-tech⁶ research centers in Russia. Among them are an ion collider and a neutron⁷ reactor⁸ for which Europe promised to give $27.4 million.

Scientists said such centers play an important part in physics research that may result in the development of new materials, fuels, drugs, or other inventions.

Another $16.7 million set aside for the design of low-carbon materials and battery technologies was also frozen. The move came after the European Union stopped all cooperation with Russian organizations last month.

One science project, a research station, has been supported by Germany's Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry. But after Russia invaded Ukraine, the organization stopped financially supporting the station, which studies climate change in the Arctic.

Peter Hergersberg is a spokesperson for the Max Planck Society, which receives money from Germany's federal government as well as states.

He told Reuters the freeze in financial support will probably lead to a break in continuous measurements at Russia's Northeast Science Station. The station, which sits on the Kolyma River in Siberia, has been keeping records since 2013.

Hergersberg said researchers there were trying "to keep the station running." He did not say how much money was being withheld⁹ from the project.

Scientists who spoke to Reuters said Russia's invasion of Ukraine has undone¹⁰ years spent building international science cooperation following the Soviet¹¹ Union's 1991 collapse¹².

A lot of communication between scientific organizations is currently stopped and research trips have been postponed¹³.

Arctic concerns

Among the more urgent research efforts on hold are projects to study climate change in the Russian Arctic.

Ted⁴ Schuur is a Northern Arizona University ecologist who works with the Permafrost Carbon Network. Permafrost is a layer of soil that is always frozen in cold areas of the world. He said two-thirds of the world's permafrost area is in Russia, so data from there is very important.

"If you cut off your view of changing permafrost in Russia, you're really cutting off our understanding of global changes to permafrost," Schuur added.

Scientists see the suspension of financial support for Russian projects as worrying because it could delay important research on climate change. This is especially true as climate change melts the long-frozen ground that holds an estimated 1.5 trillion tons of organic carbon. That is twice the amount already in the atmosphere today.

Scientists fear that as the ground melts, planet warming gases could be released into the atmosphere.

Schuur said while scientists can use satellites to see changes on land, they cannot see what is happening below ground. Scientific teams are needed in the Arctic to study the underground changes.

Russian scientists have collected and shared permafrost field data for years. But as the war in Ukraine continues, Western researchers are not sure about the future of the research efforts.

Words in This Story

sanction – n. an action that is taken or an order that is given to force a country to obey international laws by limiting or stopping trade with that country, by not allowing economic aid for that country – usually plural¹⁴

collider – n. a machine used to force particles to hit each other at high speed so scientists can study the results

layer – n. the amount of a substance covering a surface

organic – adj. happening or developing naturally over time, without being forced or planned by anyone

1 partnerships   

n.伙伴关系( partnership的名词复数 )；合伙人身份；合作关系

参考例句：

• Partnerships suffer another major disadvantage: decision-making is shared. 合伙企业的另一主要缺点是决定要由大家来作。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• It involved selling off limited partnerships. 它涉及到售出有限的合伙权。 来自辞典例句

2 ongoing   

adj.进行中的，前进的

参考例句：

• The problem is ongoing.这个问题尚未解决。
• The issues raised in the report relate directly to Age Concern's ongoing work in this area.报告中提出的问题与“关心老人”组织在这方面正在做的工作有直接的关系。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 ted   

vt.翻晒，撒，撒开

参考例句：

• The invaders gut ted the village.侵略者把村中财物洗劫一空。
• She often teds the corn when it's sunny.天好的时候她就翻晒玉米。

5 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

6 high-tech   

adj.高科技的

参考例句：

• The economy is in the upswing which makes high-tech services in more demand too.经济在蓬勃发展，这就使对高科技服务的需求量也在加大。
• The quest of a cure for disease with high-tech has never ceased. 人们希望运用高科技治疗疾病的追求从未停止过。

7 neutron   

n.中子

参考例句：

• Neutron is neutral and slightly heavier than the proton.中子是中性的，比质子略重。
• Based on the neutron energy,the value of weighting factor was given.根据中子能量给出了相应的辐射权重因子的数值。

8 reactor   

n.反应器；反应堆

参考例句：

• The atomic reactor generates enormous amounts of thermal energy.原子反应堆发出大量的热能。
• Inside the reactor the large molecules are cracked into smaller molecules.在反应堆里，大分子裂变为小分子。

9 withheld   

withhold过去式及过去分词

参考例句：

• I withheld payment until they had fulfilled the contract. 他们履行合同后，我才付款。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• There was no school play because the principal withheld his consent. 由于校长没同意，学校里没有举行比赛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

10 undone   

a.未做完的，未完成的

参考例句：

• He left nothing undone that needed attention.所有需要注意的事他都注意到了。

11 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

12 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

13 postponed   

vt.& vi.延期，缓办，（使）延迟vt.把…放在次要地位；[语]把…放在后面（或句尾）vi.（疟疾等）延缓发作（或复发）

参考例句：

• The trial was postponed indefinitely. 审讯无限期延迟。
• The game has already been postponed three times. 这场比赛已经三度延期了。

14 plural   

n.复数；复数形式；adj.复数的

参考例句：

• Most plural nouns in English end in's '.英语的复数名词多以s结尾。
• Here you should use plural pronoun.这里你应该用复数代词。