| I am not sure why the above comment is being downvoted. I remember ... early 90s ... when the Superconducting Super Collider was being proposed/started in Waxahachie Texas. The original claim to the broader scientific community funded by NSF, DOE, and DOD was that building this wouldn't impact other science funding. Then my thesis advisors grant was reduced as part of cost savings to move money around for the SSC. So ... far from being a good expenditure, real science was cut to make room for a project that ultimately was shut down. Hit me directly, as I couldn't take a research assistant position with my advisor, I had to take a teaching position to provide me income and tuition support. These were not fun times. Sabine's article is quite good, and she asked a meaningful set of questions. A new collider is probably not the best use of funds ... though ... honestly ... I'd like to see a helluva lot more money pushed to real science, so we can build the infrastructure (non-retired) scientists need, fund the software they need to develop. Doubling or trebling NSF budget would help. Similarly for NIH, CDC, and others. Not that I think we should repeat the funding mistakes of the past (Ph.D. in physics in 90's, think 1000 applicants for each open tenure track position, and 100's of applicants for each national lab position). We should make sure we are doing quality work, and enable researchers to take risks. Current grant process doesn't really allow this. |
Still, it is a bit weird to get upset about the Future circular collider when the International Linear Collider is the next big High energy physics project.