Physics names winners and losers

Physics names winners and losers

UK scientists studying high-energy light from space and the connection between the Sun and Earth are to losesubstantial levels of funding.

The body overseeing UK astronomy and physics says some of its programmes will be cut back to save £81m by 2011.

But the Science and Technology Facilities Council says these savings should be seen against an overall budget for the period of £1.975bn.

Projects that will lose money are those deemed to be a low priority.

They include support for the Intergral space telescope and the Veritas observatory, both of which are concerned with the investigation of gamma-ray light; and Bison, an observatory pursuing solar-terrestrial physics.

An upgrade to the eMerlin radio astronomy network, based on the famous Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire, has escaped any cuts.

Areas considered to be high priority for the UK include work on detecting gravitational waves and space telescopes that image the universe in the infrared.

The UK astronomy and physics community has been in turmoil since the beginning of the year when it was indicated some science disciplines stood to lose financial support in the review.

MPs on the House of Commons Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills committee said the whole affair reflected poorly on Britain and had left the nation looking like an “unreliable” and “incompetent” partner for international science.

The government Department for Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills (DIUS) maintains the settlement it gave the STFC was a good one, and continued the trend in recent years of real rises in science funding.

Independent reviews have been initiated into the general state of physics funding in the UK and into the role of the STFC itself.Both of these investigations are expected to report in the Autumn.<p

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation

Source: news.bbc.co.uk

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