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narecenttrip

throughthe

state ofTe x a s,

Isaw a signpost

thatdirected

visitors to the

scene ofabitter

battlewhereabandofplucky

heroes triedtodefendafrontier

outpostagainstahugearmy,but

lost. No,it wasn’t the Alamo, but a

towncalledWaxahachie.And

manyphysicists remember all too

wellwhathappenedthere in the

early 1990s.

The outpost tooktheform of a

particle accelerator called the

Superconducting Super Collider

(SSC), and its role was to push back the frontiers of

knowledge about the Universe.

Like today’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the SSC

wasdesignedto smashtogetherparticles with

energies similar to those thatprevailed just after the

Big Bang. Andtodoit,the SSC,likemostthings in

Texas, was going tobebig: thousandsoftonnes of

superconducting magnets and otherparaphernalia

packedintoatunnelalmost90kmround–triple the

size oftheLHC–buriedunder Waxahachie.

TheSSCpromisedto answer a wholehost of

cosmicquestions. Was theso-calledStandardModel,

the best description of subatomicparticles, really

trustworthy? Ifso, where was theso-calledtopquark,

thelast ofthebuildingblocksofsubatomic matter

predictedbyitsequations? AnddidtheHiggsVector

boson, needed to explain whyparticles have mass,

reallyexist?

Theprospect ofgetting answers to thesequestions

sparkedhuge amounts ofexcitement among particle

physicists. But in 1993, with just 20per cent of the

SSCbuilt, calamity struck.UScongressmen,

concernedabout spiralling costs, tookaim,firedand

killedtheproject.Amongphysicists, thedecision

was seen as a massive defeat. Morale plunged, and

many sought careers elsewhere.

Not everyone was distraught by the decision to shut

down the project,however. The SSC was originally

expectedtocostaround$4bn,butbythe

timeitwaskilledofftheestimatedprice

taghadalmost tripled. One senator

doubtless spoke for many US taxpayers

whenhedeclared: “It would be nice

to know the origin of matter. It

would beevennicertohave a

balanced budget”.

Even some scientists

weregladtoseethedemiseof

the SSC. I recall oneprofessor

working on less glamorous

problems than thequest for

theHiggsboson saying it

was about time that

particlephysicists got

their comeuppance.

In theend,the

scientists got answers to their questions anyway–

they justhadto wait abitlongerfor them. But now it

seemsthatnoteventheLHCwillanswerthenext

batchofquestions. What is the‘darkmatter’ that

lurksinourUniverse?Wheredoesdarkenergy

comefrom? AndwhatliesbeyondtheStandard

Model?Ihave no idea, andIdoubtthat physicists

will be given billions for another Big Scienceproject

to find out.

Sodoes that mean theendofthequestfor cosmic

knowledge? Hardly:history shows that mostbig

breakthroughscomefrom SmallBut Smart Science.

The nature of the Universe has beenpinned down

withexquisiteprecision using orbiting observatories

costingfarless than theLHC.Darkenergy was

discoveredusing multitasking Earth-based

telescopes. And in the last few months, key insights

into the nature ofdarkmatterhave emergedfrom

ROBERT MATTHEWSON...BIG SCIENCE

experiments costing less than

£10m a pop.

Isuspectthat thedays of

Big Science projectsliketheSSC

andLHCareover.Instead,it’s time

toseekinspirationfrom thebattle

cry ofthefirst atom-smasher

himself,LordRutherford:

“We don’t have the money, so we’ll

justhave to think.”

“HISTORY SHOWS THAT MOST BIG BREAKTHROUGHS

COME FROMSMALL BUTSMARTSCIENCE”

RobertMatthewsis visiting

professor in science at Aston

University, Birmingham. His latest

bookChancingIt: The Laws Of Chance

And What TheyMean For You

is out now (£14.99, Profile).

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