Austria Will Not Pull Out of CERN

Early possibilities of Austria pulling out of CERN has now been struck down. Austria Chancellor has overrulled the science minister and will continue to be a member of the high energy physics lab.

"Austria has been a member of CERN for over 50 years -- a whole host of Austrian scientists are linked to CERN and will continue to do so in the future," Faymann, a social democrat, said at a news conference with Science Minister Johannes Hahn.

Hahn, a conservative, had angered Austria's scientific community earlier this month when he said CERN's 20 million euro ($27 million) annual membership ate up too much of his international research budget, and that Austria planned to quit.

Obviously, there's a lot of other issues bubbling under the surface here. Let's hope science isn't used as a pawn in such a power and political struggle.

Zz.