Sources have stated that when refusing to bow before US President Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban, scientists across the world, including India, have opened up their lab spaces to counterparts stranded outside America. Under the Science Solidarity List (SSL) initiative, researchers from over 30 countries have agreed to host the affected.
What began on social media as spontaneous offers of help from scientists to accommodate banned peers awaiting US clearance, following Trump’s January 27 order, has emerged as a clarion call to support those in need of immediate work spaces.
Anchored by the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), the SSL is a “list of scientists offering temporary bench or desk space, library access and possibly even accommodation for US-based scientists who are stranded abroad due to the White House Executive Order 13769, ‘Protecting the Nation from Foreign Terrorist Entry into the United States’ of 27 January, 2017.”
On Friday, a US judge in Seattle issued a temporary
nationwide block on Trump’s ban on travelers from seven Muslim nations.
However, the White House said the Justice Department will challenge attorney’s
decision. Meanwhile offers continue to pour in as science, literally, attempts
to trump the ban and there are currently over 800 offers of assistance and the
list gets a new entry every five minutes or so.
