Coming for the scientists themselves next? (Ref to Galileo)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deutsche_Physik
It is one of the (many) reasons they fell behind in atomic research.
The Nazis fell behind in atomic research for a variety of reasons, each with its own underpinnings. One of the most interesting in my mind was organizational failings. Although many different groups were working in this area, the regime leadership was rather disconnected and didn’t prioritize a coherent or integrated research effort. They didn’t provide much funding either. In some ways this created more room for unstructured scientific inquiry and creativity, but it also meant that no particular group could make any real progress toward usable reactors or weapons.
Contrast this with the Manhattan Project in the US (and the UK’s efforts at radar), which was supported and managed from the highest levels of government with a figurative blank check and despite immense compartmentalization also had a high degree of integration among disciplines and sites. There was one goal.
In my view this is an interesting manifestation of the foundation of the Third Reich. In Martin Davidson’s The Perfect Nazi, Davidson notes that the Nazi party was in many ways a child’s cosplay turned into a nightmare. Davidson writes that one of the key failings of the regime is that it was run by broken people who had more of an interest in catharsis than any real sense of society, advancement, or cohesion.
This apparently had significant operational consequences because if you don't know how it works all you can do when there's a fault is order spare parts. So German radar stations would be offline more often and for longer. Although Chain Home's transmitters were wildly more powerful than anything even a rich British amateur might have seen before, not to mention operating on frequencies unachievable with prior technology, the principles were familiar.
I have seen Most Secret War recommended to me by basically every physical and ebook seller I have an account with, so I guess it’s time to take one of them up on the offer. Thank you!
Any other similar insights from your readings?
IMHO, it's more than warranted to call out parallels between events back then and events happening right under our noses today [2], not to mention the increasing and worrying trend of book bans [3].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institut_f%C3%BCr_Sexualwissen...
[2] https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/ohio-man-accused-burnin...
[3] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-school-library-book-ban...
It definitely adds an interesting nuance to the book burning thing.
Thanks.
So, it was smart and young German students that wanted to get rid of most or all of the material produced by one of the earliest institutions on the planet dealing with controversial topics like birth control, LGBT, fetishism, sadomasochism and venereal disease.
The founder and most of the researchers there were Jewish, so I wouldn't discard an antisemitic motive behind that as well.
As you say, I always bought the "dumb nazis burned books" story, but this context makes me think about the event in a much different way.
https://pubs.aip.org/physicstoday/online/5299/The-scientific...
There are young PhD students who've been imprisoned for months without bail over these fictions.
Here's[2] the FBI director's Twitter thread about the C. elegans researcher, for a flavor of the MAGA sociology that's driving this. [edit]: His rhetoric in the case in [3] is even less hingèd.
[0] https://detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/06/27...
[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-025-01958-4 ( https://archive.is/XIONv )
[2] https://xcancel.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/19322140473000796... ("This case is part of a broader effort from the FBI and our federal partners to heavily crack down on similar pathogeon [sic] smuggling operations, as the CCP works relentlessly to undermine America’s research institutions.")
[3] https://xcancel.com/FBIDirectorKash/status/19300448842845230... ("This case is a sobering reminder that the CCP is working around the clock to deploy operatives and researchers to infiltrate American institutions and target our food supply, which would have grave consequences... putting American lives and our economy at serious risk. Your FBI will continue working tirelessly to be on guard against it.")
>After being charged last month with trying to smuggle frog embryos into the United States, Kseniia Petrova, a Russian bioinformatician, was indicted on 25 June on additional charges by a grand jury in Boston, Massachusetts — including making a false statement to customs agents.
Well, that's ... something.
Honestly, when I first read your comment I got the impression that these students might have done something innocuous that got grossly misinterpreted (perhaps on purpose) and that's how they got in trouble ...
But the ones you showed so far did engage, quite clearly, in criminal behavior. I don't think ICE/Patel/Trump should be blamed for that.
Not sure what the outrage is,
Chinese scholar from UM Chengxuan Han expected to plead guilty in smuggling case
"During the secondary inspection, Han made false statements that she had not sent packages to members of the UM Lab," an FBI agent wrote in the court filing. "When pressed, Han admitted that she had shipped packages to members of the UM Lab. Han initially stated to (Customs and Border Patrol) officers that the packages were plastic cups (rather than petri dishes) and a book (omitting the envelope with suspected biological materials concealed in it)."
The FBI counterintelligence case against UM scholar Yunqing Jian, 33, and her boyfriend, 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, involves allegations that Jian received money from a Chinese foundation funded largely by the Chinese government to conduct post-doctoral work. That includes research on a fungus known as Fusarium graminearum, a biological pathogen that can cause devastating diseases in crops.
Maybe these students are getting overcharged, but they were clearly caught smuggling.
it's also surprising there wasn't more scrutiny in the past. there are colonels in the PLA that have actively called for and published materials calling for agro and bio terrorism against the US, and all chinese nationals are required to debrief on return.
> Experts doubt that the smuggled fungus could be used effectively, since the logistics, as well as physical conditions, such as temperature and humidity, for creating a widespread infection with this pathogen are not straightforward. Furthermore, this fungal infection can be prevented and/or controlled with the use of pesticides and cultural practices, like harvesting early to stop fungal growth. Having said that, if the strain that Jian and Liu brought into the U.S is a new potent variant, there is a possibility of it being an effective weapon. Nevertheless, F. graminearum has been studied in the U.S. for more than a century, and it is a common factor to treat in food safety protocols.
You'd expect the CCP to be a little better at it if that were the intention.
“While searching one of Liu’s cell phones, they found an article in PDF form titled “2018 Plant Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions.” Authorities said the article specifically referenced Fusarium graminearum as “an example of a destructive disease and pathogen for crops” and is “responsible for billions of dollars in economic losses worldwide each year.”
But the actual article is about the ‘warfare’ between plants and pathogens in a world with a changing climate as denoted by the hyphen in the title..
“Plant-Pathogen Warfare under Changing Climate Conditions”
There is great need for future research to increasingly use dynamic environmental conditions in order to fully understand the multidimensional nature of plant-pathogen interactions and produce disease-resistant crop plants that are resilient to climate change.
have people gone mad?
The more common route is you complete the paperwork, fly with it in your carry-on and declare it all at customs.
Having worked in a related field, it certainly wasn’t uncommon for scientists to skip some of the hassle and just not declare their research material. Definitely not ‘proper’ and certainly higher risk to their immigration/visa status if they were foreign nationals, but still not uncommon when the alternative is spending hours in CBP inspections before you spend hours in the normal immigration queue.
The context should be pretty clear.
*facepalm*