McCarthyite Witch-Hunt against Top U.S. Scientist

Top research chemist and nanoscientist Charles Lieber was convicted yesterday of making false statements to the U.S. government regarding his work with China’s Thousand Talents program. The chairman of Harvard’s chemistry and chemical biology department, Lieber had worked with a former student of his at the Wuhan University of Technology in 2011-12 to set up a WUT-Harvard Joint Nano Key Laboratory, and to train young scientists in the nanotechnology that he pioneered. He was considered a Nobel Prize candidate for his work in inventing electronics so small and flexible, they could be injected into, e.g., the retina or the brain, promising breakthroughs in restoring sight to the blind, and movement to the paralyzed.