236 17 JANUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6475 sciencemag.org SCIENCEPrevious experiments have hinted at the ex-
istence of the condensate, but the EIC could
clinch the case. The state’s subtle signals
should emerge more strongly in collisions
with heavier nuclei, Braun-Munzinger
says. That’s why in addition to accelerating
protons, the collider also needs to be able
to accelerate nuclei, or ions.
Dabbar declined to say why DOE chose
Brookhaven over Jefferson lab, but the Vir-
ginia facility was playing David to Brookhav-
en’s Goliath. Brookhaven covers more than
2100 hectares and has 2500 employees. Jef-
ferson lab has a staff of fewer than 700 and
occupies 68 hectares. Its researchers had
hoped to build the EIC by adding an ion ac-
celerator to CEBAF. But compared with an
electron accelerator, an ion accelerator is
larger and more expensive, and Jefferson’s
small campus would have limited the ion
accelerator’s size and energy.
Brookhaven, in contrast, already has
a massive ion collider, housed in a 3.8-
kilometer tunnel. Since 2000, the Relativ-
istic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC, pronounced
“rick”) has smashed together nuclei such as
gold and copper to re-create in fleeting puffs
the ultrahot plasma of quarks and gluons
that filled the newborn universe. To build the
EIC, researchers at the Long Island lab plan
to add an electron accelerator in the same
tunnel as RHIC.
The EIC won’t be easy to build. To reach
the desired high collision rate, the machine
will have to concentrate its proton or ion
beams in unprecedented ways. To probe
the origins of the proton’s spin, it will have
to polarize its colliding beams to a degree
never before achieved, says Lia Merminga,
an accelerator physicist at Fermi National
Accelerator Laboratory. “This requires
techniques that are beyond the state of the
art,” she says.
At the moment, the EIC’s only competi-
tion is a plan by researchers in China to
build an electron-ion collider as part of a
new physics lab in Huizhou. But that ma-
chine would run at a much lower energy
than the EIC and focus more on quarks
than gluons, making the two machines
complementary, says Xurong Chen, a phys-
icist at the Chinese Academy of Sciences’s
Institute of Modern Physics.
To win DOE’s approval for construction,
Brookhaven researchers must develop a
detailed design and cost estimate. They
plan to complete that work by 2024, when
RHIC shuts down, says Brookhaven Direc-
tor Doon Gibbs. With DOE science funding
up 31% since 2016, Dabbar is optimistic
that the agency will see the EIC through.
“We’ve been able to start on every major
project that’s been on the books for years,”
he says. j
NEWS | IN DEPTH
O
n the rain-lashed road leading to the
peak of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big
Island, the sounds of singing and
drumming can be heard above a
roaring wind. Under a canopy, doz-
ens of people celebrate their connec-
tion to the mountain with Native Hawaiian
songs, chants, and dances, as they have
been doing three times daily for the past
7 months. Many of the tents scattered
across this lava field are unoccupied during
this winter lull, but the current residents
take good care of the site, which includes
tents for food, medical care, and
classes. They seem happy to wait
as long as it takes for astrono-
mers to give up on their plan to
build a giant telescope on their
sacred mountaintop.
Like medieval armies call-
ing a halt to war in winter, the
two sides contesting the soul of
Mauna Kea agreed last month to
a 2-month truce: The consortium
that wants to build the Thirty
Meter Telescope (TMT) here
will not attempt to start construction, and
the camp residents—who see themselves
as the mountain’s protectors, or kia’i—
moved their tents from the road, allowing
unimpeded access up and down the moun-
tain. “A de-escalation of emotions is a good
thing,” says Gregory Chun, a psychologist at
the University of Hawaii (UH), Hilo, who is
advising the university leadership on the
management of Mauna Kea. “I don’t know
what will come of it.”
Behind the scenes, TMT board mem-
bers and funders are meeting with Native
Hawaiian leaders—some of whom sup-
port the project—but this has yet to yield
any solutions. Few can predict what might
happen when the truce ends in late Febru-
ary, but no one doubts that kia’i would re-
turn in force if the TMT consortium tries
to start construction, says a longtime kia’i
known as Uncle Sparky. “If we put out a call,
1000 people would be here in an hour.”
And now, the $1.4 billion TMT, backedby six nations and wealthy universities, is
facing another front in its battle to be one
of three new giant telescopes—and the only
one in the Northern Hemisphere. TMT
opponents—including some astronomers—
are seeking to win over the wider astron-
omy community to stop its construction.
In a press conference outside the an-
nual meeting of the American Astronomi-
cal Society (AAS) in Honolulu last week, a
group of Hawaiian researchers announced
the submission of eight white papers to
the decadal survey in astronomy, known
as Astro2020, a priority-setting exercise
that influences U.S. funding agencies. They
want Astro2020 to ensure that no federal
money is used to build on state
land without the consent of
local Indigenous people. And
federal money is just what the
TMT needs. In a joint pitch to
Astro2020 with one of its two
rivals, the U.S.-led Giant Ma-
gellan Telescope in Chile, the
projects are asking for money
that would fill budget holes
and provide observing time for
U.S. astronomers.
The white papers describe
the cultural significance of Mauna Kea and
the negative impact of the observatories on
Indigenous people and their ability to carry
out cultural practices on the mountain. One
paper charts the decades of resistance—both
legal and direct action—to telescopes on
Mauna Kea. The mountain and other land
throughout the islands that once belonged
to the Hawaiian monarchy was seized after
its overthrow in 1893 and became state land
when Hawaii was granted U.S. statehood in- “It’s a land rights issue, and a power
and decision-making issue,” says co-author
Shelley Muneoka, a sociologist at the
Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance.
In July 2019, after surmounting legal
challenges, TMT officials were finally ready
to begin construction. When police arrived
intending to ensure the safe passage of con-
struction traffic, kia’i had already chained
themselves to a cattle grid on the access
road. Over a few chaotic days, police ar-
rested 38 people, many of them community
New front emerges in battle to
build giant telescope in Hawaii
TMT opponents try to win over other astronomers
in priority-setting decadal survey
ASTRONOMYBy Daniel Clery, in Honolulu and on the slopes
of Mauna Kea in Hawaii“If we put
out a call,
1000 people
would be here
in an hour.”
Uncle Sparky,
Mauna Kea protectorPublished by AAAS