Date: Mon, 21 May 2012 19:23:13 -0400
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: whitroth at 5-cent.us
Subject: [WSFA] Physics Dreams Deferred, aka the US falls behind
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
In 2019, a spacecraft known as Euclid will begin such a mission to study
dark energy. But it is being launched by the European Space Agency, not
NASA, with American astronomers serving only as very junior partners,
contributing $20 million and some infrared sensors.

For some scientists, this represents an ingenious solution, allowing
American astronomers access to the kind of data they will not be able to
obtain on their own until NASA can mount its own, more ambitious mission
in 2024.

But for others, it is a setback. It means that for at least the next
decade, Americans will be relegated to a minor role in following up on
their own discovery.

"While it's great to support other missions," said Adam Riess of Johns
Hopkins and the Space Telescope Science Institute, who shared that Nobel
last year, "it would be disappointing to see the U.S. lose or outsource
its own leading role in one of the hottest areas of research."

For Dr. Riess and his colleagues, this turn of events is another example
of a worrying trend in which American scientists, facing budget deficits
and political gridlock, have had to pull back from or delay promising
projects while teams based in Europe hunt down the long-sought Higgs
boson or rocket scientists in China plan a Moon landing in 2025.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/22/science/american-scientists-fear-losing-edge-in-physics.html>

          mark