CERN, the European centre for particle physics, will have to dig itself
out of its current financial hole without help from Britain.
A Swiss court awarded building contractors who dug a 27-kilometre tunnel
for the Large Electron Positron collider an extra 90 million Swiss francs
because the job cost more than originally estimated.
Officials from the Science and Engineering Research Council have said
that increasing its subscription is out of the question – a view shared
by other members of CERN. Instead the SERC has offered to bring forward
a number of staged payments due later this year and next. CERN members are
expected to discuss how to pay the bill this week.
