DO OTHER planets like Earth exist? Is there a theory of everything? Could fusion provide cheap and unlimited energy? Physicists think they know how to find the answers to all of these questions. Yet late last month their ability to do so suffered a series of devastating blows.
In December, two major funding announcements gave physicists on both sides of the Atlantic an unpleasant – and unexpected – Christmas present. In the US, Congress cut $94 million from particle physics and fusion programmes just months after politicians had agreed on substantial increases. In the UK, the country’s main funder of…
