The LHC is super cheap

"The LHC cost each British citizen £1.65 in 2015. I’ll bet you spend more on peanuts. Cancer research comes to about £2.80 per person, yet cancer costs us £250 per person per year. That’s not very good accounting. We each are taxed around £134 on all publicly funded research per year, equivalent to only 0.44% of GDP. This is the lowest level of investment of any of the G8 countries. If your measure is Nobel prizes, then we have more in the sciences than all bar America. The comprehensive spending review looms just over the horizon, and the science budget is set, like so many other public endeavours, to be cut by up to 40%."

"For me there is no conflict between the arts and science, we need and thrive on both. But here’s the rub: art blossoms when economies are strong, and doesn’t itself generate great wealth. Pure scientific research is a public investment and builds economies. Cutting the science budget is pruning the roots of a tree."

Originally shared by Jenny Winder

By Dr Adam Rutherford