Could Speeding Particle Save Fermilab?

That’ll be the same Fermilab that’s facing an uncertain future will it?

According to the Chicago Tribune, the huge 4-mile circular Tevatron particle accelerator may be forced to close by 2010 if Congress does not approve construction at Fermilab of a multibillion-dollar, 18-mile-long International Linear Collider.

So this discovery which could, according to the press announcement, change the whole of fundamental physics, might be enough to convince even those in government with 0.000001% science knowledge that shutting Fermilab would be a bad thing?

“Without the collider, the United States would lose its lead position in high-energy physics discoveries to Europe, where a new accelerator seven times more powerful than the Tevatron is to start up within two years at a site on the Swiss-French border,” says the paper.

Now, to my mind it would be no bad thing if Europe were to have an even stronger foothold in particle physics, but it would be a tragedy for Fermilab to close and I guess recruiting the media to spread the word of Fermilab could be its saving grace.