ately never-to-be Superconducting Supercollider, ed near axaexas, in ts oed States Congress. tention of tolet scientists probe “timate nature of matter,” as it is al, by re-creating as nearlyas possible tions in ts first ten ths of a second.

    to fling particles tunnel fifty-taggering ninety-nine trillion volts of energy. It o build (a figure t eventually rose to $10 billion) and o run.

    In per example in ory of pouring money into a  $2 billion on t, t in 1993 after fourteen miles oftunnel exas nos t expensive eis, I am told by my friend Jeff Guinn of t ortar-telegram, “essentially a vast,cleared field dotted along ted small towns.”

    1tical side effects to all tly effort. t. It ed by a CERN scientist, tim Berners-Lee, in 1989.

    Since ticle ps  ts a little loeven comparatively modest projects can be quite breatly rino observatory at take Mine in Lead,Souta,  $500 million to build—t is already dug—beforeyou even look at ts. ts.” A particle accelerator at Fermilab in Illinois, meano refit.

    Particle p, is a erprise—but it is a productive one.

    today ticle count is ed, butunfortunately, in t is very difficult to understand tionsicles, and ure s t tionsare from one to anotably eacime o unlock a box,  ticles called tacravel faster t. Oto find gravitons—t of gravity. At om is not easy to say. Carl Sagan in Cosmos raised ty t if you traveled doo an electron, you mig it contained auniverse of its oion stories of ties. “it,organized into t of galaxies