VolNATURE 460|13|Vol August 460|13 2009 August 2009 NEWS

HAVE YOUR SAY Comment on any of our News stories, online. www.nature.com/news up a quarter of the mass of the Universe. Finally, one of the most sought-after targets is Science advisers mull priorities the Higgs boson, the only particle predicted by the standard model that has not yet been An elite group of 21 US researchers met under Bush, the council launched in found. The elusive boson is a marker of the publicly for the first time last week as December 2001 with 24 members and Higgs mechanism, which could explain how the new advisory panel to US President expanded to 35 in 2005. PCAST’s previous particles have mass. Barack Obama on scientific and technical incarnation focused more on technology matters. But despite an enthusiastic advice, and it included fewer academic Bad welds inaugural meeting, it will take time to scientists and more business executives. The 2008 accident was caused by a faulty weld know how effective the President’s Council “The best thing about this PCAST is in a section of superconducting wire connect- of Advisors on Science and Technology that it’s up and running earlier in the term ing two magnets. The subsequent months of (PCAST) will be. than the previous one,” says Marburger. At inspections of the rest of the LHC found just PCAST has already put together its the meeting last week, Holdren said that four more bad welds in this type of connec- first report, on the government’s H1N1 the council’s speedy formation was a clear tion — but also revealed a far more widespread pandemic strategy. Other topics likely to be signal that Obama thinks that science and problem. high on its agenda include how science can technology are crucial in addressing global The superconducting wires are surrounded help the economic recovery, and how best challenges. On 7 August, the council met by copper wires, which act as ‘safety valves’ to to deliver on Obama’s ambitious climate with the president for a little over an hour. carry any sudden surge in current. The copper and energy research portfolio. PCAST’s H1N1 report had been wire will only come into play if the supercon- Opening the meeting on 6 August, commissioned by Obama in late June. ducting wires warm up and lose their ability to co-chair John Holdren called the council Shortly after, the council met for two days conduct electricity without resistance. “a spectacular cast of leaders of our science, with around a dozen experts in public Tests over the past few weeks have revealed technology and innovation communities”. health, virology and other key fields. 80 bad welds between sections of copper wire, Holdren, who is Obama’s chief science The report, which has not yet been made but with roughly 10,000 copper-wire welds adviser, chairs PCAST with Harold public, was delivered two weeks later and scattered around the LHC, not all have been Varmus, former director of the National addressed the value of scenario planning, inspected. This element of uncertainty means Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, communicating complex messages to the that CERN must increase the operating energy and Eric Lander, director of the Broad public and policy-makers, and the types of the machine cautiously to avoid further acci- Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. of legal, social, financial and other factors dents. The full group boasts three Nobel laureates that could get in the way of responding The cost of repairs so far is 40 million Swiss and 16 members of the national academies to a pandemic. “Everyone felt that it was francs. Myers acknowledges there was a quality- of science, engineering or probably the best response control problem with the welds, and that the medicine. ever to an epidemic event,”

systems for detecting current surges and miti- The new PCAST “has says Lander. K. WOLFF gating a catastrophic release of helium could a great membership and Last week’s meeting saw have been improved. “It’s usually the simple outstanding co-chairs, council members suggesting things that cause you problems,” he says. but its ability to influence future subjects that could Peter Limon, a physicist at Fermi National events depends on attract their scrutiny. Accelerator Laboratory in Batavia, Illinois, who listens”, cautions Barbara Schaal, a plant says these birth pains are “typical”. Limon John Marburger, who geneticist at Washington points out that various problems meant that co-chaired the previous University in St Louis, Fermilab’s Tevatron — currently the world’s incarnation of PCAST suggested weighing in on highest-energy collider — took years to reach as the science adviser to the research agenda for the its maximum collision energy of 1.8 TeV. President George W. Bush. proposed National Institute With a year or two of data collection needed PCAST’s success or failure for Food and Agriculture, for the LHC to make a definitive Higgs dis- depends mainly on its John Holdren co-chairs the an institute authorized covery, the Tevatron still has a chance at access to the president and PCAST council. within the US Department bagging it first. Tevatron physicists plan on its interactions with of Agriculture but not to present the latest update on their Higgs various other advisory groups within the yet funded. Lander, also a geneticist, hunt on 18 August at the Lepton-Photon administration. These include the Office suggested looking at governmental conference in Hamburg, Germany. of Science & Technology Policy, which approaches to cancer research, including Gordon Kane, a theorist at the University of Holdren directs, and the National Science evaluating whether the most creative Michigan in Ann Arbor, says that the physics and Technology Council, composed approaches get support in their early days. community is frustrated by delays at the LHC, mainly of the heads of agencies that deal And geochemist Daniel Schrag of Harvard but adds that an extra year is not so long to hold with scientific matters, along with the US University suggested tackling national on for the Higgs particle, given that its exist- vice-president. strategies for research into adaptation to ence was proposed in 1964. “I’m going to be Last November, Marburger and the cope with the effects of climate change. there when it’s discovered,” says the 72-year-old other outgoing PCAST co-chair, venture The next PCAST meeting is slated for late Kane, “no matter how long it takes.” ■ capitalist Floyd Kvamme, left a memo October. ■ Eric Hand offering their successors some advice, Alexandra Witze and Lizzie Buchen For more on the LHC, see www.nature.com/lhc including limiting the number of members: See Editorial, page 781.

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