The Czech Republic inevitably has to pay for the acts of God that befall it, the most recent being this summer's devastating floods. But it should try to leave science untouched. As in all former communist countries facing economic difficulties, science is in danger of growing old and dying out. Young people contemplating a career in research are discouraged both by low wages and by the lack of any indication that Czech science has a robust future.

In seeking ways to pay for the flood damage, the Czech government should ensure that it does not worsen the prospects for its scientific future (see page 430). Scientists should be exempt from any wage cuts, and freed from the wage freeze recently imposed on all civil servants. The government should also do what it can to ensure that bold plans by the Academy of Sciences to develop a high-power laser donated by the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics in Garching, near Munich, into an international research facility are not put at risk.

The laser project offers Czech scientists a unique opportunity to demonstrate to Western colleagues their ability to operate the type of large-scale facility that is common in the European Union. At the same time, it will enable young researchers to play host to European guest scientists, and thus become fully integrated into the mainstream of European research. For all Czech scientists, the project could help to restore self-esteem.

It is therefore important that there is no unnecessary delay in the installation of the laser in Prague. Concrete for the special housing unit can be laid only in the autumn months. If financial uncertainty forces a one-year delay to plans to lay the foundations next month, scientists who were using the facility at Garching until it closed last spring will look elsewhere. And if this happens, an important opportunity for Czech science will have been lost.