Dr. Michio Kaku's comments on LHC and US science.

[LongTomH]

I got the link from Dr. Kaku's home page - the op-ed is from Forbes.com: We're No. 2!.

Dr. Kaku took a few paragraphs to dismiss the popular panic about the LHC creating black holes that will destroy the earth; then he went on to discuss the fact that we had a chance to build a superconducting supercollider (SSC) in the US. Congress actually appropriated a billion dollars to begin the project, and the tunnel for the supercollider was dug in Texas. Then Congress lost its nerve and the next gigabuck went to fill in the hole!

The shock waves of this cancellation were felt almost immediately in the scientific community. Many of my friends, after devoting years of their lives on this project, lost their jobs. Progress in high-energy physics stagnated for 15 years. An entire generation of U.S. physicists was lost.

Inevitably, this means that leadership in one of the most advanced areas of science has now passed from the U.S. to the Europeans, just as predicted back in 1993.

The real story of the LHC is not (and has never been) that it's going to destroy the earth. That is a diversion. The real story of the LHC is that the shortsightedness of the U.S. Congress has allowed leadership in this area, which has always been dominated by the U.S., to pass to Europe. (For the record, much of the funds for the SSC eventually wound up in the International Space Station, a huge $100 billion "space station to nowhere" that dwarfs the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska.) Among scientists, the guessing game is: What is the next area of science that will pass from the U.S. to another country because of the shortsightedness of the U.S. Congress?

If you want to gloat about billions of dollars of taxpayer money being saved by the SSC not being built, please consider: What would the gain be for the US economy and US science of some of the brightest minds in physics coming to the "new Mecca in advanced physics, the SSC in Dallas?" (Dr. Kaku's words!) What will be the future effect on the US economy of losing the leading edge in so many scientific fields, from high-energy physics to stem-cell research?

[Hestia]

1. Europeans & Asian's fund their projects to the very end - hence, CERN

we lose so many of our brightest to other countries due to the fact that they cannot find a job here. Disgusting.