Eastern union

What will happen when the two most populous nations on Earth join scientific forces? Mara Hvistendahl in Seed Magazine:

In 1956, China started building a road through Aksai Chin, a remote region of the Himalayas claimed by India. When Indian leaders learned about the move-which, due to the area’s inaccessibility, didn’t happen until a couple of years later-they were incensed. By 1962, the two countries were battling it out between the peaks of the Himalayas in what’s now known as the Sino-Indian War. Today, though shelling has stopped, the border dispute persists. Every few years, there’s a diplomatic row that serves, more than anything else, to keep political and cultural exchanges between these two neighboring giants to a minimum.

There may be an opening, however, as both nations realize their mutual scientific ambitions. China and India both possess rich science-cultural legacies: Prior to the 15th century when the European renaissance surged, the Chinese were consistent technological and scientific innovators, while among other significant advances, Indian mathematicians invented the decimal system. Today, both China and India are focusing heavily on scientific investment-China in areas like stem cell research and nanoscience and India in information technology. As these two nations strive to develop and innovate, they have started to look across their fractious frontier and agree to work together for mutual scientific gain.

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