Last week, Austria essentially pulled out of the European research laboratory that houses the LHC, among other Big Science projects, citing a tight budget. It will be interesting to see what will happen to Big Science as the recession worsens. Although currently the US is stepping up science research funding, this is unsustainable. So will science be funded to the bitter end, or will more and more nations realize that throwing money at science and technology is not sufficient for prosperity?

Update from Minnesota Chris:

Thanks to politicians, it looks like Austrian money will continue to be thrown down the rathole known as the LHC.

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