Back in early 2015, the chance of "Brexit" - which refers to Britain leaving the European Union (EU) - seemed very low. However, as the months passed and Europe's migration crisis escalated, recent surveys are now pointing more favorably towards this possibility.
Renowned physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking is among one of the many that is calling for Britain to stay in the EU, claiming that Brexit would be a "disaster for U.K. science."
Hawking, among more than 150 other fellows of the Royal Society, sent a letter time the Times newspaper, arguing that scientific research would be destroyed by leaving the EU. They cite the fact that many promising young scientists were recruited from Europe, as well as the benefit that increased funding from the continent has had on the field of U.K. science.
"First, increased funding has raised greatly the level of European science as a whole and of the U.K. in particular because we have a competitive edge," the team wrote. "Second, we now recruit many of our best researchers from continental Europe, including younger ones who have obtained EU grants and have chosen to move with them here."
The letter claims that the Brexit situation would encourage scientists who live elsewhere to move to Britain and points to Switzerland as an example of the downfalls of such a move - although the country is paying into the EU, it only has limited access to funds and has a difficult times recruiting younger, talented scientists due to the restrictions that it faces.
Conversely, Angus Dalgleish of St George's Hospital, University of London and a spokesman for "Scientists For Britain," who are in favor of Britain leaving the EU, has a different opinion.
"We are standing up against what is a very large body of people who feel that if we leave the EU it will be a disaster for funding and collaboration - and we completely refute that," he said. "The bottom line is that we put far more into Europe than we get out. Any difference we can more than easily make up with the money we would save."
Still, most of the options available to Britain if it does decide to leave the EU are not very appealing - it would need to setup a form of trading and institutional relationships to start, which could be a very long and arduous process.
