Google and China may not be fighting over science, but their feud could have unintended negative consequences for researchers in the country.

A Nature News survey of Chinese scientists found that 84 percent of them thought losing access to Google would "somewhat or significantly" hurt their work process. Like their American counterparts, Chinese researchers use Google and Google Scholar to find papers and related information.

"Research without Google would be like life without electricity," one Chinese scientist told Nature.

In January, Google announced it would stop following censorship rules required by the Chinese government after its servers came under attack. It remains to be seen whether the Mountain View company will be thrown out of the country for that stance.

When Google's initial announcement broke, media blogger Robin Sloan of Snarkmarket pondered the possibility of the splitting of the famously world-circling internet.

"Is the Chinese internet going to be largely parallel? The othernet?" Sloan asked.

If events do continue in that direction, truly global enterprises like science could suffer as information becomes harder — even if only moderately — to exchange.

Image: AP Photo/Vincent Thian. A Chinese Google user presents flowers to the Google China headquarters in Beijing, Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2010.

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WiSci 2.0: Alexis Madrigal's Twitter, Tumblr, and green tech history research site; Wired Science on Twitter and Facebook.* *

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