British Physics Faces 'Catastrophic' Cuts

When the Nobel Prize in Physics was announced in Stockholm in October 2013, the world was watching.

Among the names read out was Prof Peter Higgs, the British theorist who, nearly half a century earlier, had predicted the existence of a particle believed to hold the cosmos together – the Higgs boson.

The announcement, broadcast live from Sweden, was what many scientists had hoped for since a year earlier, when experiments at CERN had finally confirmed Higgs's theory by discovering the Higgs boson – hailed as one of the biggest discoveries in a generation.

At the time Higgs, who has since passed away, said in a statement: "I hope this recognition of fundamental science will help raise awareness of the value of blue-sky research."

Blue-sky research asks questions to understand the universe, rather than design new products. It is what British science excels at, leading to the discovery of the electron, the structure of DNA and the development of the first computer. All of them were without any practical application when they were developed or discovered, but each of them has since formed the basis of technologies that created multi-billion pound industries and transformed our world.

But now, Britain is preparing to cancel its contribution to one of the Large Hadron Collider's next major upgrades. It is one of several proposed cuts of UK involvement across various major particle physics and astronomy projects, which could see Britain's scientists reduce or even end their involvement in the most exciting international research collaborations probing the nature of our Universe.

For some, it is as if Higgs's words, celebrated back in 2013, were never uttered.

Behind the story is a row that has seen the science minister, Lord Vallance, and the head of Britain's scientific research funding agency accused of diverting money away from blue sky research towards government scientific priorities to help grow the economy. BBC News has a leaked document that suggests this has happened. Vallance and those leading UK science funding have continued to deny this.

And it cuts to an issue that lies at the heart of science: to what extent should researchers focus on so-called 'blue-sky research' (which has no specific purpose other than solving the Universe's great mysteries), as opposed to 'applied' research, which has clearer real-world implications in mind?

The bluest of blue-sky

You need both and you can't have one without the other, according to Dr Simon Williams, a theoretical physicist at Durham University. His research is the bluest of blue-sky: he uses quantum computers to predict how sub-atomic particles behave. His original aim was pure scientific understanding - but as it happens, his work is also now used by a British-based company.

He thinks that cutting original blue-sky research isn't just bad for scientists - it also harms the businesses that use it. "If the research is removed from the country, then I have a strong belief that the industry will be removed from the country," he says.

Williams says he is among 30 young physicists who now can't get a grant to continue working in the UK this year because of cuts to funding. Many of them are the brightest scientists in their fields and may be forced to seek research jobs overseas or leave research altogether to make a living.

"You're killing the tree by removing the roots," he told MPs at a special hearing of the House of Commons Science Innovation and Technology select committee earlier this month. The committee is investigating the scale and impact of the proposed cuts announced earlier this year.

Williams and other physicists worry the physics budget has been cut because a reorganisation in the system of funding science has shifted money away from blue-sky to applied research.

- Author: Pallab Ghosh, BBC

Read more...