Don’t despair. You can’t build a wall against ideas and progress

Nov 28, 2016

A woman looks through a crack in a concrete barrier that is part of the former Berlin Wall border fortification at the memorial site in Bernauer Strasse in Berlin, August 13, 2012.

"Scientists and innovators have faced greater challenges than those that arose in 2016." Image: REUTERS/Thomas Peter

David Gann

Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Development and External Affairs, University of Oxford

Mark Dodgson

Professor of Innovation Studies, The University of Queensland

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East and West German citizens celebrate as they climb the Berlin wall at the Brandenburg gate after the opening of the East German border was announced in this November 9, 1989 file photo.

East and West German citizens celebrate as they climb the Berlin wall, November 9, 1989. Image: REUTERS/Fabrizio Bensch

The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park hosted the Grand International Exhibition of 1851 Image: View from the Knightsbridge Road of The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park for Grand International Exhibition of 1851. Dedicated to the Royal Commissioners., London: Read & Co. Engravers & Printers, 1851.

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