The activities of three Frenchmen caught my eye this week.
The first was a French space scientist who suddenly found himself expelled from the US. The researcher, who has not been publicly identified, was denied entry at a US airport after immigration officials reportedly found messages critical of President Trump on his phone, a move which shocked the French government.
The second was a recent LinkedIn post from Yann LeCun, VP at Meta and arguably France’s most famous scientist du jour. “Hey Europe, you want a vibrant tech industry, right?” LeCun wrote, in words that may have antagonised his boss, Mark Zuckerberg.
“The US seems set on destroying its public research funding system. Many US-based scientists are looking for a Plan B. You may have an opportunity to attract some of the best scientists in the world.”…
