!!Standing up for scientific freedom at a time of war

In a strongly-worded editorial in the journal ''[FUNCTION|https://academic.oup.com/function]'', [Ole Petersen|Member/Petersen_Ole] MAE and [Alexei Verkhratsky|Member/Verkhratsky_Alexei]  applaud the actions of scientists who oppose the Russian war against Ukraine.
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The editorial cites examples where members of academia, both collectively and as individuals, have condemned acts of Russian aggression. They include Nobel Prize winner, [Sir John Eccles|https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1963/eccles/biographical] FRS ML who denounced the crushing of the Prague Spring (1968) by the Soviet Union. In 2022, national academies – including the US National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society and the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina – have issued a [statement|https://www.leopoldina.org/en/press-1/news/joint-statement-by-the-national-academies-of-the-g7-states-on-russias-attack-on-ukraine] that calls out the ‘unprovoked attack against Ukraine’. __Academia Europaea__ has made a similar [declaration|Acad_Main/News_Archive/Ukraine statement].
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The editorial concludes with the authors’ personal view that the academic community cannot ignore events such as the current war. The response has to be one of maximum pressure against Russian authoritarianism, support to those Russian groups who speak out against the conflict, and assistance to Ukrainian scientists and scholars.
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The Responsibility of Scientists in a Time of War\\
Ole H Petersen, Alexei Verkhratsky\\
Function, Volume 3, Issue 3, 2022, zqac023, [https://doi.org/10.1093/function/zqac023]\\
Published: 02 May 2022

!About the authors

[Ole Petersen|Member/Petersen_Ole] is a Professor at Cardiff University’s School of Biosciences. He was elected Fellow of The Royal Society in 2000 and Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2010. He became Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2008. Professor Petersen is Vice-President of Academia Europaea and Director of the AE Cardiff Hub. He is Chief Editor of American Physiological Society’s Open Access flagship journal [FUNCTION|https://academic.oup.com/function] which launched in 2020.
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[Alexei Verkhratsky|Member/Verkhratsky_Alexei] is Professor of Neurophysiology in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He was elected Member of Academia Europaea in 2003 and Member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina in 2013.
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[{Image src='Petersen_Ole_02.jpg' caption='Professor Ole Petersen' height='200' alt='Professor Ole Petersen'}]
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[{Image src='Verkhratsky_Alexej_small.jpg' caption='Professor Alexei Verkhratsky' height='200' alt='Professor Alexei Verkhratsky'}]
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!About FUNCTION

Launched in 2020, the American Physiological Society’s Open Access flagship journal FUNCTION seeks papers that contribute to defining the mechanistic basis of living systems in health and disease. FUNCTION aims to be a highly selective journal, publishing major advances that extend physiological understanding of biological function and the changes associated with disease states. It provides a high calibre and broad spectrum open-access platform for researchers to publish their major advances in basic, translational, and clinical sciences.