US researchers are threatening to boycott a NASA conference due to a ban on Chinese nationals, reports the Raw Story.
Word of a boycott began to spread as many learned NASA was banning Chinese researchers from attending, including many who worked for US institutions.
The law championed by Rep Frank Wolf restricts access by foreign nationals to NASA facilities, supposedly to counter espionage.
The conference at the Ames Research Center in California is set for next month.
“In good conscience, I cannot attend a meeting that discriminates in this way,” wrote Geoff Marcy, an astronomy professor from the University of California, Berkeley. “The meeting is about planets located trillions of miles away, with no national security implications.”
Marcy expressed his frustrations in an e-mail to conference organizers.
Many of the scientists who support the boycott say they learned of the ban only after hearing that their Chinese national students were being forbidden from attending the conference.
You can read more about the growing boycott movement in Raw Story.
