24 February

If the Large Hadron Collider does not prove the existence of the Higgs boson in the next two years, physicists say the entire Standard Model theory of subatomic structure must be reassessed.

The first results on supersymmetry from the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) have been analysed by physicists and some are suggesting that the theory may be in trouble.

Now things are looking even bleaker for Fermilab and the Tevatron. The Fermilab Neighborhood blog reports that lab director Pier Oddone said at an all-hands meeting February 15 that budget cuts proposed in the House of Representatives would force a number of drastic measures at Fermilab.

Just as President Obama sent a budget request for fiscal year 2012 to Capitol Hill that includes big increases for energy R&D and other federal basic research programs, House Republicans tacked in the opposite direction, submitting a bill that would chop billions of dollars in spending from R&D programs in the current year.