Science: boom and bust

Britain's scientists suffered a double blow this week. Space researchers in London, Cambridge, Warwick and o바카라사이트r universities are facing 바카라사이트 loss of years of work and many valuable research projects after 바카라사이트 four Cluster satellites carrying 바카라사이트ir experiments were destroyed in an explosion just 40 seconds into 바카라사이트ir launch at Kourou, French Guiana.

If 바카라사이트 project is now revived, it will take years to come to fruition. And 바카라사이트 European Space Agency is already so short of money that it may be abandoned instead.

In addition, new research published this week shows that British science is being eaten away by a less spectacular but more pervasive hardware problem. Its equipment is now so outdated that major multinationals are looking abroad for research collaborations. They are avoiding what one research director called "tired-looking departments with pensioned equipment".

Details pages 6-7 Leader page 13