This Should Have Been in the US

[JackC]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/19 ... discovery/

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is already getting interesting results and it has only just started operating at half of its designed energy levels. Its capabilities dwarfs (by about 7 times) the capabilities of the second most powerful collider in the world at Fermilab in the US.

Ronald Reagan approved the construction of an accelerator in Texas that would have been significantly more powerful than the LHC. Congress later cut funding (over Reagan's objection) after more than a billion had already been spent.

So we got the worst of both worlds. We wasted more than a billion dollars and still got the brain drain that is occuring as the hearts and minds of best physicists around the world turn to the LHC at CERN.

The US should ALWAYS be a leader in science. We are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet every year. You would think that we could throw some of it at something that everyone will be thankful for in the future.

[jbuck919]

I agree with Jack.

[RebLem]

I don't think any serious scientist would be happy working in a state in which the public schools teach Creaionism.

[JackC]

I don't think any serious scientist would be happy working in a state in which the public schools teach Creaionism.

Wow, not only does that have nothing to do with anything, it is plainly false - Texas is full of serious scientists - and especially stupid.

[jbuck919]

I don't think any serious scientist would be happy working in a state in which the public schools teach Creaionism.

But the thing wouldn't fit in Massachusetts.

[living_stradivarius]

I don't think any serious scientist would be happy working in a state in which the public schools teach Creaionism.

But building a LHC in Texas would actually garner converts to science.

[jbuck919]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/19 ... discovery/

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is already getting interesting results and it has only just started operating at half of its designed energy levels. Its capabilities dwarfs (by about 7 times) the capabilities of the second most powerful collider in the world at Fermilab in the US.

Ronald Reagan approved the construction of an accelerator in Texas that would have been significantly more powerful than the LHC. Congress later cut funding (over Reagan's objection) after more than a billion had already been spent.

So we got the worst of both worlds. We wasted more than a billion dollars and still got the brain drain that is occuring as the hearts and minds of best physicists around the world turn to the LHC at CERN.

The US should ALWAYS be a leader in science. We are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet every year. You would think that we could throw some of it at something that everyone will be thankful for in the future.

I should point out that Ye Same Olde Ronald Reagan would have had nothing to do with most stem cell research, which later ground to a near halt under W. Bush and is still impeded even under Obama. So much for an apolitical commitment to science in an area where the US should take a mighty lead.

[living_stradivarius]

I should point out that Ye Same Olde Ronald Reagan would have had nothing to do with most stem cell research, which later ground to a near halt under W. Bush and is still impeded even under Obama. So much for an apolitical commitment to science in an area where the US should take a mighty lead.

Just because the government is failing doesn't mean private biotech co's housed in the US are

[jbuck919]

I should point out that Ye Same Olde Ronald Reagan would have had nothing to do with most stem cell research, which later ground to a near halt under W. Bush and is still impeded even under Obama. So much for an apolitical commitment to science in an area where the US should take a mighty lead.

Just because the government is failing doesn't mean private biotech co's housed in the US are

Most of the articles that turn up in a Google search date back to 2006 (when Bush put the kabosh on), but to go by what is there you appear to be right. Another question I've asked to the air and cannot find an answer to: Is the US the only country in the world capable of doing this research, with public funding or without? There's Europe with its superwhatchamacallit; with no embryo champions impeding progress why haven't they taken a research lead in stem cells as well?

[JackC]

http://www.redorbit.com/news/science/19 ... discovery/

The Large Hadron Collider at CERN is already getting interesting results and it has only just started operating at half of its designed energy levels. Its capabilities dwarfs (by about 7 times) the capabilities of the second most powerful collider in the world at Fermilab in the US.

Ronald Reagan approved the construction of an accelerator in Texas that would have been significantly more powerful than the LHC. Congress later cut funding (over Reagan's objection) after more than a billion had already been spent.

So we got the worst of both worlds. We wasted more than a billion dollars and still got the brain drain that is occuring as the hearts and minds of best physicists around the world turn to the LHC at CERN.

The US should ALWAYS be a leader in science. We are throwing hundreds of billions of dollars down the toilet every year. You would think that we could throw some of it at something that everyone will be thankful for in the future.

I should point out that Ye Same Olde Ronald Reagan would have had nothing to do with most stem cell research, which later ground to a near halt under W. Bush and is still impeded even under Obama. So much for an apolitical commitment to science in an area where the US should take a mighty lead.

I should have known better than to reference Reagan. I only pointed out that he objected to cutting off of funds in case someone wanted to say that he stopped the project.

I don't agree with the ban/restrictions on stem cell research, but this is a special case for obvious reasons. Moreover, as science makes more and more biological engineering possible, it it right that we ask ourselves some questions. Just because something is technologically possible, that does not mean it is the right thing to do - although there no doubt that you will always be able to find some scientist somewhere who is prepared to attempt anything.

But again, this is a very limited area - a special case dealing with issues of life, cloning etc - that have nothing to do with most research.

[Agnes Selby]

Please read:

http://www.smh.com.au/world/science/lic ... 16nn2.html