Science vs. War

Story of Opening the CERN laboratory (NY TIMES).
"After 14 years of labor, scientists at the CERN laboratory outside Geneva successfully activated the Large Hadron Collider, the world’s largest, most powerful particle collider and, at $8 billion, the most expensive scientific experiment to date. -NY TIMES"

This new project cost 8 billion USD. It's funny if you hace ever played Civilization on your PC (game where you have to conquer the world either with force, technology or diplomacy) you know that if you put too much money on culture your technology and military innovations lack behind compared to other nations.

Well it seems that Europe's tactic is to concentrate on technology these days unlike USA that puts its money to military.

USA use to be a great country when it comes to technology but nowadays it seems their not the leader anymore.

"In 1993, the United States Congress canceled plans for an even bigger collider and more powerful machine, the Superconducting Supercollider, after its cost ballooned to $11 billion. In the United States, particle physics never really recovered, said the supercollider’s former director, Roy F. Schwitters of the University of Texas in Austin. “One nonrenewable resource is a person’s time and good years,” he said. -NY TIMES"

"Total U.S. military spending in 2006, over $528 billion, was 46% of the entire military spending in the world and greater than the next fourteen largest national military expenditures combined. (In purchasing power parity terms, it was larger than the next six such expenditures combined.) The per capita spending of $1,756 was approximately ten times the world average.[54] At 4.06% of GDP, U.S. military spending is ranked 27th out of 172 nations.[55] The proposed base Department of Defense budget for 2009, $515.4 billion, is a 7% increase over 2008 and a nearly 74% increase over 2001.[56] The estimated total cost of the Iraq War to the United States through 2016 is $2.267 trillion.[57] As of September 2, 2008, the United States had suffered 4,152 military fatalities during the war and over 30,000 wounded.[58] -WIKIPEDIA"

CERN laboratory, 14 years, $8 billion and you might find out what happened in the Big Bang.

IRAQ war, 13 years (2003-2016) $2.267 trillion and you might have peace in the Middle East.

Personally I don't believe in either of those things will happen any time soon but you never know.