PROFESSOR Peter Higgs, the Edinburgh University scientist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for his work on the so-called "God particle," has backed the campaign to stay in the EU.
The physicist was among a group of nine of the UK's most eminent scientists who have warned that leaving the EU would put Britain's world-leading research at risk.
In an open letter, the group, including seven Nobel laureates, said within the EU Britain "helps steer the biggest scientific powerhouse in the world".
They said the free movements of experts created "scientific agility" and enabled many of the world's finest minds to collaborate.
They also highlighted the importance of EU funding.
The group, which also includes the Nobel Prize-winning stem cell pioneer Sir Martin Evans, said Leave campaign claims that EU funding would be replaced were "naive and complacent" because successive governments had failed to match the present level of resources.
"The prospect of losing EU research funding is a key risk to UK science," they wrote.
"We may be an island, but we cannot be an island in science. Being part of the EU is good for British science and that is good for Britain."
Professor Higgs gave his name to the Higgs boson, sometimes called the "God particle," which is fundamental to laws of particle physics because it provides mass to the most basic building blocks of matter.
He predicted its existence in 1964 but
it was not confirmed until 2012.
When he was awarded the Nobel prize a year later, he said his new-found fame was "a bit of a nuisance".
Other Nobel laureates signing the letter included the biologist Dr Sydney Brenner, physicist Sir Andre Geim and
Sir John Gurdon, a pioneer in the science of cloning.
In total, UK universities received almost £1billion euros in research funding last year.
Conservative, SNP and Labour campaigners have all identified support for Higher Education as a major reason to remain within the EU.
However, Scottish Vote Leave head Tom Harris has argued leaving the EU would benefit Scottish Universities.
He said leaving would allow them to charge EU students, raising around £80million.
The money could be used to provide financial support and extra places for Scottish students.
He said: "The biggest problem for our universities is our membership of the EU."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel