Fermilab Is Saved!
July 2nd, 2008
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And it wasn’t by Jesus either. No, although it seems just as unlikely, it seems that Fermilab was saved by the US Congress!
It was not long ago that I wrote about how Fermilab, one of the premier science institutions of the world and the most experienced and accomplished particle physics laboratory in the world was so cash-strapped that only a five million dollar donation from a private individual was able to prevent more layoffs of staff. While this donation did provide some help, the laboratory still has barely been able to keep the lights on and the laboratories fully staffed.
Thankfully, that is changing. The US House of Representatives and Senate have passed an emergency funding measure which will provide $400 million for cash-strapped federal science programs. This includes more than sixty million dollars allocated to the DOE’s science office, which overseas Fermilab. Fermilab had been operating on a budget of $320 million for 2008, which is more than fifty million dollars less than what was requested and twenty million dollars less than previous years.
The funding should end the need for any more layoffs or drastic cuts and may even allow Fermilab to expand research into neutrino detection, accelerator designs and other related areas. Fermilab now seems relatively safe, although the fickle politicians will have another crack at the budget next year and it’s hard to tell what kind of mood they will be in.
I have to admit that in general I’m complaining about the government spending more than it should and not cutting enough, but when it comes to science projects like those undertaken by Fermilab, the return is vast for a relatively low price. The US government spends trillions, much of it on things which it probably doesn’t need to, so the budget for Fermilab is not enormous. Indeed, compared to the money spent on other “big science” programs like space exploration, the amount is not that large – less than a single extended space mission, but the value is enormous.
Remember that this money is not to build or establish Fermilab. The facility is already there and the staff are there as well (most of them.. the ones we didn’t have to lay off.) Institutions like Fermilab represent an investment in an asset that is unique and which is part of a rich legacy of science in the United States. It is a small price to pay for the upkeep and continued operations of such an illustrious research facility. The cuts to the funding of Fermilab thus were not a savings, but represented a squandering of a national treasure. Hopefully the legacy of discovery supported by the United States will continue into the 21st century and not be snuffed out by apathy.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008 at 12:09 am and is filed under Announcements, Good Science, Politics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 12:51 am
Wow, finally some good news in the science funding department. It’s really important these days I think because really the US is dealing with a lot more competition in the world from China, India, the EU, the former Soviet Union.
Really science is a big part of it because that is what is going to make the difference in staying ahead and stuff like Fermilab can’t be allowed to be lost.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 1:09 am
It would not be the first time that the government has started something and then not finished it because the politics changed or something. That’s irritating as hell to me when they plunk down a few billion and then decide the project is not worth it when it’s 90% done. I mean, really the pressure has to be kept up by the voters to continue the funding because this funding won’t last forever.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 1:40 am
You’re right about the government not following through on something they start. They have a tendency to spend a real lot of money on a project and then decide it’s too expensive to complete when a large portion is done. Some might say that’s cutting losses, but I’d say it’s assuring that all the money already spent is a complete loss. Some of the worst is that then a new project will start and the same thing will happen. On some occasions, they realize in the end that the first option was the best way to go but by then its been disbanded and it must be restarted from square one.
It’s politics in general. Certain things fall in and out of favor. Things are sold big and then once they actually start it people loose interest and the political interests stop promoting it. In some cases it may be known from the beginning that it’s not going to go all the way to the conclusion for some political reason. Yes, I agree when we have something like Fermilab it’s a small price to keep it operating and up to date, but that’s not what sells politically. In general the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing anyway which is why we have these ridiculous start-stop-start-stop cycles. Also the whole contract bidding process, at least in the US Government, is a joke, especially for smaller contracts which should be very simple but get turned into a huge deal and end up becoming big and expensive when they do not need to be.
Did I mention I have been avoiding government work for the last few years? It’s a personal thing. I don’t want to do that to myself again. It’s not worth the disappointment and frustration.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
Good for Fermilab. I wonder how much public outcry had on moving the politicians to act.
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July 2nd, 2008 at 10:53 am
At “An actual scientist” it sounds like you are speaking from experience. I assume you have worked for government science projects before? Sorry to hear you have not had a good experience with it
Do you at least think some amount of good science comes from it? (I Hope)
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July 3rd, 2008 at 3:26 am
Hopefully they didn’t loose to many experienced people during the layoffs and if they did maybe they could be rehired even. These days the job market is so slumped they may not have found anything else yet.
I don’t know though. I thought all the important work with accelerators was going to be done at cern from now on anyway.
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July 3rd, 2008 at 7:58 pm
Void Main said:
Oh what a load of crap. Just because it’s not the biggest accelerator on earth anymore makes it useless? Well then we may as well retire every other accelerator since we only need one and only the biggest matters.
That’s bull! Fermilab is not only still relevant but it has a lot of capabilities and experience that other areas don’t have.
When a bigger telescope is built do we retire all the others? No! Of course not. There’s way too much science to be done for one accelerator facility no matter how big! Besides that, Fermilab has played a HUGE role in CERN.
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July 4th, 2008 at 1:50 am
Oh wonderful, but still they spend a lot more money on war and a lot less on renewable energy. I’m not saying science isn’t important and I’m glad this happened to save a science laboratory but still they should be spending more on renewable energy because that is where it’s at. Renewable energy is one thing and the other is I think eventually unseating the fat cats on oil companies and the rest who want to stop it. Anyway those go together. MORE WIND AND SOLAR PLEASE!
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July 5th, 2008 at 2:23 am
Nathan, you’re a funny character. I used to think people like you actually had a reason to believe what they did, but after banging my head against enough of your ilk it’s very clear to me that you’ve just had a load of steaming propaganda downloaded into your brain in a zip file you never opened.
“Spending more” on renewable energy is as farcical as the same politicians who say we should “spend more” on education. Spend whose money, exactly? And how? It’s not how much damned money you spend, it’s how you spend it, and “more wind and solar” is as horrific a thing as giving every child in a school district laptop computers. Unlike consumerism, running a country has more in it than throwing as much money as you can into it.
All you people ever do is spout off the same tired, old drivel and NEVER back it up because you’ve never bothered checking the facts for yourself. And when confronted, you immediately point the conspiracy finger because whoever doesn’t believe in a bright idealistic world just like you absolutely must be paid off somehow, amirite? What if I believe in a different one, where people who couldn’t think for themselves, like you, don’t get a say in the political process?
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