Leading US particle physics lab faces uncertain future
nature.com
nature.com
But, "Access Issues" says people were not allowed in due to problems with documentation. Expired passport in one case and what I guess to be poor coordination between the directorial staffs of the Brookhaven and Fermilab in another. Unclassified lab or not, if those people _had_ gotten in, there would have been a bigger stink. [0]
Fermilab's public relations and outreach are strong. The avuncular Don Lincoln holds forth on Youtube on physics topics but it is apparent that the excitement has moved elsewhere long ago. I like outrageous experiments but DUNE doesn't move my meter compared to IceCube and that's just in neutrino science. [1]
Maybe big science has gotten too big and eventually other megafacilities with thousands of eggheads in one basket will feel the same pinch.
[0] Inspector Rafferty: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSD5VoFBDWs
But yes, it is sad to see the current situation in Fermilab. Being a permanent researcher there is still my perfect dream job.
The rest? Few specifics on small to midsize research. The details are for big projects that ask "What could we do for $xB?" vs. "What do we need to do and how much might it cost?"
It's 90+ years since Zwicky's dunkle Materie, 50+ since Rubin's rotation curves. How many more deep undergound dark matter detectors can be or should be supported? MOND may be imperfect but nothing has yet panned out on the particle side, either.
Overall, it reads like no one thought through the possibility that LHC would find no new physics beyond the very expected Higgs. Astrophysics can access energies impossible on earth, lab scale experiments may probe theories (or aspects of them). That leaves traditional big science particle physics in a jam.