At the request of New Scientist magazine, betting-shop giant Ladbrokes has opened a book on some of the key conundrums in science, Sneak hears. Several bets are on offer, such as whether the origin of cosmic rays will be uncovered by 2010 (with odds of 4 to 1), or whether gravity waves will be positively identified by the same date (6 to 1). Six to one odds are also on offer for punters willing to wager that the elusive Higgs boson will be winkled out before 2010 by the Large Hadron Collider - the 17-mile-wide particle-smasher currently under construction at CERN. "I'd be tempted to take a bet on the Higgs at 6-1," boffin Brian Foster told the magazine - he heads the particle physics group at Oxford University. "I've been quite instrumental in betting the taxpayers' money on us finding it, so I'd better put my money where my mouth is."

31 Aug 2004