BIG SCIENCE:
Top French Researchers Spar Over Synchrotron
Michael Balter
PARIS--A lively and often heated debate broke out last week among some of France's top scientists over plans to scuttle a major French synchrotron radiation facility and instead back a joint venture across the English Channel. But for all their oratorical fireworks, the scientists, who spoke at a parliamentary hearing, were essentially haggling over a possible consolation prize: whether France should build a second, smaller synchrotron facility on its own soil.