----- Original Message ----- From: "Nathan Newman" <nathan at newman.org>
> With string theory, the energy needs or so high that it's not even
> conceivable at the moment to do the experiments required, although I am
sure
> there are lower level experiments to soak up the funds.
>
> The problem with looking at science funding as a zero-sum game is that I'm
> not sure it's always true that more funding for one area cuts off funding
> for another. Sometimes it does but other times, a "big science" project
> creates a funding umbrella that other cheaper projects can slip under.
When
> the main projects costs billions, what's another million more here or
there.
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It's not the funding per se at issue, nor it's possibly zero-sum character; it's a bit more Keynesian than that. I'd argue we'd get better multiplier/accelerator [damn those physics metaphors! :-)] spillovers from some significant shifts away from building bigger, better particle chambers and the like. Take the guns or butter arguments, dress 'em up and turn them on the scientists too......We can't take another century of military control of our scientific bureaucracies/priorities.
>
> Science funding is such a small part of the national budget that it's
really
> hard to treat any particular part as being about competition with other
> parts. Within the science bureucracies, that's sometimes true, but less
> important when dealing with Congressionally-mandated line items in the
> budget.
>
> -- Nathan
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The atrophying of the public science budget since Reagan has been a big mistake, imo. I was only speaking within the context of science funding per se. I think we make a mistake when the problem is set in the context of science/ fed budget ratios because it obfuscates the real problems that need to be dealt with; in the same manner that framing military spending as % of GDP obfuscates the fact that another 100 years of US style budgets for WMD's along the lines of the last 57 years and the like could easily spell extinction.
Ian