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.