AFP: Austria is pulling out of the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN), Science Minister Johannes Hahn announced Thursday, citing budget concerns.
Austrian physicist Daniel Grumiller published an open letter about the importance of CERN to Austrian science and called himself "speechless" at the decision. He notes that 173 Austrian scientists are now actively working at CERN.
Austria made a good decision. Last year the British were questioning the value of further funding this project. And there are serious signs here in America of the same. The LHC is enormously expensive. But that is not the real problem. The problem is that it is delayed perpetually and with out end in sight. For those who think it will start in September think again. So it is not producing any results or any new science but it is absorbing massive amounts of money. It is time to think about funding other science projects. In France and Switzerland the LHC is a job creation tool not a science experiment. That is why some seriously suspect that the delays are not unintentional but intended to avoid the dreaded "point of diminishing returns." Kudos for Austria. Hopefully other nations will follow suit. The LHC is not really science so Idoubt science will suffer.
Whoever this 'Andrei' is, he is wrong.
CERN and similar endeavours are indispensible for the progress of mankind.
The kind, how the Austrian decision was taken, without public discussion, was deeply undemocratic. Supporters of this decision should bear that in mind.