Who needs to know about particle physics, I mean we can't see the stuff, right?

Max Planck once said: "A scientist is happy, not in resting on his attainments but in the steady acquisition of fresh knowledge." Profound words and no doubt true. So why is it that the STFC (Science and Technology Facilities Council) have decided to "re-focus" the science budget towards more industrial sciences such as pharmaceuticals and biotech. So, despite the science budget being relatively miniscule at only £3.5 billion (it may sound a lot, but that's buttons and lint compared to the budget of the NHS or armed forces, it's been decided that research grants will only be given for a year at a time. Congratulations, you're certifiable morons!

I first noticed this due to following Professor Brian Cox on Twitter, who's got little northern knickers in twist over this and quite rightly so. While it's important to have significant funding for the pharma and biotech industries, more academic sciences such as physics also need their fair share of the funding pie. Massive projects such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, as well as smaller research projects that you get at Universities need the money to find the answers to the questions that we've been asking since we banged rocks together and climbed trees.

What the sciences really need is an increase in funding across the board. £3.5 billion is a paltry sum for what we as a nation are capable of. We risk being left behind other nations in regards to science and we've shown throughout history and to this day that we are able to be the best for science. From esteemed scientists such as Isaac Newton, Stephen Hawkins and the aforementioned Brian Cox to television documentaries such as Planet Earth and The Planets we consistently punch above our weight in the sciences. To risk throwing that away simply for a few million quid would be outrageous and tragic.