I can’t believe I’m the first to post about this, since it’s “ancient” news (i.e. from last week). But if you missed it, Austria is planning on pulling out of CERN after 50 years involvement. The claim is that they can use the money (about $21M) elsewhere in the EU.
Anyway, don’t think that the Austrian scientific community is taking the news well. They are getting organized and already have a petition online. Please take a minute and sign it:
http://sos.teilchen.at/petition/
It came as a surprise when Federal Minister Hahn announced that he wanted to discontinue Austria’s membership in CERN.
This “wrong historic decision” (quoting Prof. Dr. Herbert Pietschmann) must be stopped before Austria’s reputation as a nation of high-tech and modern research suffers irreparable damage and our country excludes itself from future developments.
CERN – this is research in elementary particle physics and comology. CERN is a brilliant example of excellence by European cooperation. CERN is the vision of our young scientists.
By signing this petition I urge the Austrian parliament not to agree to this proposition of minister Hahn.
(And I hope no-one missed that ATLAS slide in the AP article!)
(Thanks, Heinz and Paul!)
