Physicists consider reviving the SSC

arstechnica.com

6 pointsdmur4 comments

To summarize the article, the advantage of restarting the SSC instead of rebuilding the LHC is that the original setting in Texas offers more room for expansion than the present location of the LHC. The bad news is that the revived SSC would need to host a large number of scientists in a state noted for its philosophical proximity to a scientific stone age.

"Houston, we have a problem." That famous NASA location is Houston, Texas. So, I'd say that your dig is unnecessary. Texas is a big state so I'd bet there's a healthy segment of highly educated people.

That's true, but it doesn't contradict my original claim. Texas was selected for political reasons, not practical ones. Had pragmatism and convenience ruled the day, the SSC would have been sited immediately adjacent to Fermilab.

There's a reason NASA programs, and big science projects, are scattered across the country, and it's not efficiency, it's politics -- congress must slice the pie into as many pieces as possible.

Yes, and the fact that the state lies within a country now notorious for having a dysfunctional Congress, the same body that pulled the rug out from under SSC's original proposal in the 90s.

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