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| An atomic catastrophe | Jim Al-Khalili A £40m cut for nuclear physics research will reverberate way beyond the nation's laboratoriesLook up into a clear night sky through a telescope and almost everything you see will be the result of nuclear processes. Closer to home, our understanding of nuclear physics lies at the heart of vital healthcare services in diagnosis and treatment of cancers, approaches to protecting the environment, power generation, our ability to deal with nuclear waste ... the list goes on. Ernest Rutherford's discovery of the atomic nucleus 100 years ago was the take-off point for so much we have come to rely on. I wonder what he would make of the sorry state of the funding of British nuclear physics today.The academic community of nuclear physicists, together with particle physicists, astronomers, astrophysicists and space scientists, is waiting for the axe to fall on its research funding in an announcement to be made tomorrow. But why should our howls of protest over budget cuts be heard above everyone else in the public sector?The Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC), which funds our basic research in UK universities, must claw back a longstanding shortfall of about £40m that arose because it failed to convince government in 2007 of the vital importance of research in astronomy, particle and nuclear physics. All this before taking into account the impending cuts foreshadowed in the chancellor's pre-budget announcements.Compared with bailing out the banks or footballers' salaries, this £40m might seem like peanuts; but the situation for whole areas of science is likely to be catastrophic, and physics and astronomy departments will be surveying the damage to their research income.Nuclear physics is particularly vulnerable. Its academic community of nuclear physicists is small by international comparison – Romania spends twice as much on its basic research – but world-leading in terms of impact. Despite gross underfunding over many years, we have continued to make an outstanding contribution to the field. But it is becoming progressively more difficult for British nuclear scientists to remain internationally competitive in their research.The question is not only whether our science is as important and exciting as other areas, but whether its continued funding stands up against the wider needs of society in health, education or defence. A recent report on nuclear physics and engineering, commissioned by Research Councils UK, stresses the need to maintain a healthy nuclear science base in Britain, and makes it clear that nuclear physics has applications across fields such as healthcare, the environment, the nuclear industry and national security. The report states that "further funding cuts could be terminal, resulting in the loss of an important skill set which would impact the delivery of masters courses". Many university research groups run and support masters courses that provide graduates with the skills needed for the nuclear, health and radiological sectors and which are underpinned by our basic nuclear physics research.The supply of skilled workers for the nuclear industry is a high priority for the UK since we must, even if we no longer design and build nuclear power stations, be intelligent customers for reactors commissioned from abroad. We must also have the expertise to decommission old reactors and to deal with nuclear waste. A secure route for the training of this much-needed generation of scientists must be agreed by STFC, along with other research councils and stakeholders, and be clearly visible.In medicine, proton and carbon-beam cancer therapy is driven largely by the nuclear physics community. What is likely to suffer in the funding crisis is the UK's involvement at international accelerator research labs such as GSI in Darmstadt, Germany, where a multinational nuclear research project is being built. It is also where carbon-beam therapy for tumours has been pioneered.What must be addressed now is how the academic community of nuclear physicists and the research councils can best work together to ensure the survival of the best science and those areas of expertise that are essential for the nation's future. This will require constructive thinking and new partnerships; simply lobbying to reverse decisions may be counterproductive, given the number of likely "don't cut my area" lobby groups.We must therefore start working with all the stakeholders in agreeing a sensible national policy on the academic provision required in healthcare and for nuclear energy sources. Ministers might reflect on how they will explain in the future their failure to support nuclear physics at the level of a couple of Premier League footballers' wages. Rutherford will be turning in his grave.Particle physicsAstronomyPhysicsNuclear powerPre-budget report 2009ScienceJim Al-Khaliliguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
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