[SES1066]

I think that I recall a popular news magazine, 40 years back or so, that had a story about the new-fangled LASER. The story title was (I believe) "A Solution in Search of a Problem". Similarly other discoveries have seemed far too esoteric to ever have practical applications, DNA or Special Theory of Relativity.

Yes, I too cannot see any practical use for the Higgs boson but I am quite the stolid thinker and that does not mean others will never use it. As a key to that physicist's dream of a "Grand Unified Theory", it might be a stepping stone to larger issues. I am glad that there is still such research going on. This is the legacy that our generation can hand down to subsequent ones that they too can stand on the shoulders of giants.

Yet, one wonders if we in the US had been able to assemble the same kind of international science alliance to build the Texas Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) that was started in 1987 and cancelled in 1993. It was designed to be 3 times larger and potentially even more powerful. It turned out to be a too expensive dream for a single country to build, BUT if we had, would this have been decades old news by now?

[Monty22002]

Clinton killing the SSC was such a disaster. The LHC is still far from what it could’ve done. We could seriously be having attempts all sorts of new technologies by now. Oh well.

[El Gato]

It turned out to be a too expensive dream for a single country to build, BUT if we had, would this have been decades old news by now?

Actually The Superconduction Super Collider was killed politically when the Fermilab in Illinois didn't win the competition to build it in Illinois. The political coalition pushing it then fell apart. While it was a big project, it did not compare to the effort to put a man on the moon. Compared to food stamps, it was cheap. :)

[El Gato]

It turned out to be a too expensive dream for a single country to build, BUT if we had, would this have been decades old news by now?

Actually The Superconduction Super Collider was killed politically when the Fermilab in Illinois didn't win the competition to build it in Illinois. The political coalition pushing it then fell apart. While it was a big project, it did not compare to the effort to put a man on the moon. Compared to food stamps, it was cheap. :)

[El Gato]

It turned out to be a too expensive dream for a single country to build, BUT if we had, would this have been decades old news by now?

Actually The Superconduction Super Collider was killed politically when the Fermilab in Illinois didn't win the competition to build it in Illinois. The political coalition pushing it then fell apart. While it was a big project, it did not compare to the effort to put a man on the moon. Compared to food stamps, it was cheap. :)

[bruinbirdman]

". . . I am quite the stolid thinker and that does not mean others will never use it."

Get hold of one Higgs Boson and repeat the mantra, "LET THERE BE LIGHT"

yitbos