Interplay between Particle Physics and Astrophysics

[Norman]

Seeing the discussion in the thread about Quantum Mechanics Careers in which ZapperZ and Locrain discussing the role of a Particle Physics Theorist, the current state of affairs in particle physics and the transport of particle theorists to astrophysics theory made me think of a recent email I got from a friend of mine that pointed me to this paper on the arxiv:
http://xxx.lanl.gov/abs/0904.0595

The abstract:

We discuss some of the key science questions that are bringing particle physicists and
astrophysicists together, and comment on some of the cultural and funding issues that have
arisen as these two communities become increasingly intertwined.

Something I found interesting (as someone who does some phenomenology work). Specifically:

As part of this study, the panel conducted a survey in January 2007
of 407 DOE and NSF investigators in experimental and theoretical particle physics; 268 (66%)
investigators responded. The survey included questions about the investigators’ current
distribution of research effort and anticipated research effort in 2012. The results demonstrated a
significant anticipated shift towards astrophysics and cosmology. By 2012, half of the FTE
effort in experimental particle physics is expected to be devoted to the Large Hadron Collider,
while the second-largest effort in 2012 is expected to be in astrophysics and cosmology,
followed by neutrino physics, linear collider development, underground physics, heavy quark
physics, and Tevatron physics, in that order. For particle theorists, the largest research area, both
in 2007 and anticipated in 2012, is particle phenomenology, followed by astrophysics and
cosmology, with significantly more effort expected in these two areas than in the other subfields
(string theory, field theory, model building and QCD/lattice QCD).

Thoughts?

 

[exdeoscientia]

Speaking out of an undergraduate physics and astrophysics knowledge/ignorance (whichever term you prefer), I personally hope that astrophysics does come to more of the forefront of scientific research, especially since a lot of the current questions in physics stems from astrophysical phenomena (dark matter or dark energy, anyone?). Of course the only major question that comes to my mind with the idea of government agencies funding astrophysical research is if this support will be given to the older generation of scientists or to the new generation just coming out into the world of research with their brand new degrees. Of course, I would prefer the latter, but would the government?