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.The tangible result of a decade of planning and hard work would just be boarded up and shrouded in dirt.Requiescat in pace.The cancellation of the SSC did, in the short term, save federal money.Along with many other cost-cutting measures, the federal budget would be balanced by the end of the decade.(Ironically, in the 2000s, the deficit would skyrocket again, making all of the cost cutting moot!) Yet, what is the long-term price of a national decline in scientific prestige? Skipping the moon landings, eschewing the robotic exploration of Mars, and abstaining from telescopic glimpses at the swirling mists of ancient galaxies would have each cut government expenses, too—while extinguishing the flames of our collective imagination.If it is a choice between science and sustenance, that’s one thing, but surely our society is rich enough to support both.It remains to be seen whether the United States will ever resume its pioneering mantle in high-energy physics.Thus in retrospect, many see the abandonment of what would have been the premier collider in the world as a grave error.According to Fermilab physicist William John Womersley, “The SSC has cast a very long shadow over high-energy physics and big science in general.We’re still dealing with the legacy.”19In the aftermath of the closure, those who took the career risk and moved down to Texas for the SSC met with varying degrees of disappointment.Some regrouped, sent out their résumés (or were recruited), and managed to find new positions in other labs or universities.For the experienced physicists, finding an academic position was hard, because not many universities wished to hire at the senior level, and the closure of the SSC reduced the need for professors in the high-energy field.A survey taken one year after the closure found that while 72 percent of those in the SSC’s Physics Research Division had found employment, only 55 percent of those positions were in high-energy physics.20Other workers, who had laid down deep roots in Texas and didn’t want to leave, either found other types of jobs or simply retired early.A few stayed to help sell off the equipment and assist in attempts to convert the site to alternative uses.Given all of the time and energy that went into assembling the land, digging the tunnels, and constructing the buildings, it is remarkable that the site has yet to be put to good use.The federal government transferred the property to the state of Texas, which in turn deeded it to Ellis County.For more than fifteen years, the county has tried in vain to market the structures, particularly the former Magnetic Development Laboratory.Like Dickens’s forlorn spinster, Miss Havisham, the relic building is a jilted bride frozen in time with no interested suitors.An agreement to convert it into a distribution center for pharmaceutical products fell through, and informal plans to house an antiterrorism training base never materialized.In 2006, trucking magnate J.B.Hunt’s plans to use it as a data center were abandoned upon his death.21 It did, however, play a background role in a straight-to-video action flick, Universal Soldier II.22 To mention another has-been, the Norma Desmond of labs finally had its close-up.Though it’s instructive to ponder what could have been in hypothetical scenarios about alternative choices, in truth physicists can’t afford to wallow in disappointment.An energetic frontier is ripe for exploration and there’s no time for looking back.Leaving the plains and pains of Texas behind, in the late 1990s the American particle physics community regrouped and headed either north to Illinois, for renewed efforts at the Tevatron, or across the ocean to the cantoned land where cubed meat and melted cheese deliciously collide.After all, Geneva, Switzerland, has distinct charms, some of which Lederman described well.Comparing it to Waxahachie, he wrote, “Geneva.has fewer good rib restaurants but more fondue and is easier to spell and pronounce.”23Humanity’s best chance of finding the Higgs boson and possibly identifying some of the lightest supersymmetric companion particles now rests with the Large Hadron Collider.Though it will crash particles together at lower energies than the SSC was supposed to—14 TeV in total instead of 20 TeV—most theoretical estimates indicate that if the Higgs is out there the LHC will find it.If all goes well, modern physics will soon have cause for celebration [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]