Militant animal rights activists have forced Tübingen neuroscientist Professor Nikos Logothetis’ to announce that he will no longer do primate research.

The death threats and hostility he has received are not worth it, he said. But scientists are showing solidarity, even if it just means signing a letter and they won't be getting in the way of any bullets. In less than 48 hours more than 2,000 scientists from all over the world signed a motion by Professor Peter Thier, Chairman of the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience (CIN) at the University of Tübingen.

It won't matter. Animal rights activists know this is a victory for their tactics and that will mean they will get even more hostile. They don't understand basic research and think working on primates is unnecessary

“I am very happy with the broad echo from the scientific community,” Thier said today. “After what has happened in Tübingen, it ought to be clear to every scientist working with animals that they can become the target of animal rights activists.

Thier’s motion allows that animal rights activists may perceive Professor Logothetis’ decision as a win for the anti-science side. 

“We, however, are of the clear opinion that it constitutes a substantial loss as well as an alarming development.”

Months of massive threats and hostility had driven an internationally es-teemed scientist like Nikos Logothetis into a corner. The motion calls this “a sad demonstration of the damage fundamentalist fury can do to individual scientists and to the science endeavour at large.”

Among the signees are scientists of many leading universities and research institutions, including the ETH Zürich, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Leuven, Harvard and Yale, the Sapienza in Rome, and the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.