We’re getting closer to the time when the Large Hadron Collider becomes fully operational. Phil Plait, over at Bad Astronomy, points us towards this web cartoon that pretty much summarises the gamut of reactions to this. I also like the artist’s statement below the cartoon. Extract:
The U.S. was to have built such a supercollider in Texas, but congress cancelled funding for it back in 1993. Science is one of the stupider things I can think of to get jingoistic about—it’s up there with art as one of the great collaborative intergenerational human undertakings–but it still disappoints me that my own country, which split the atom and landed a man on the moon, decided it didn’t have the money to resolve some of the profoundest questions about the nature of reality but did manage to come up with funds for the destruction of Iraq. This seems to me kind of like not being able to afford music lessons for your daughter but somehow always having enough cash on hand to buy cocaine every weekend.
Geoff Coupe's Blog 
Leave a comment