The USA Superconducting Super Collider was to be the forerunner to the Large Hadron Collider, which has been built near Geneva, Switzerland. The two colliders send proton beams hurtling in opposite directions at speeds approaching the speed of light to smash into one another. Physicists have a mathematical model for the atom called the Standard Model. It predicts the existence of such particles as the Higgs Boson. The Hadron experiments could confirm predictions made by the Standard Model.
The Maths Error: Assuming Mathematicians Can count!
How can we, the public, have faith in mathematical models put forward by mathematicians who cannot add up a few dollars to arrive at realistic costs? The initial cost of the US Superconducting Super Collider was $Aus 4.35 Billion in 1987. When the project was cancelled in 1993 the cost had blown out to $Aus 13.0 Billion. 22 km of tunnel had been constructed near Fort Worth Texas when the Congress cancelled the project. The end result was a big hole in the ground costing $Aus 2.2 Billion. (Expensive Hole in the Ground pic LEFT)
COLLIDER TRAGEDY 2: The Large Hadron Collider (Pic BELOW) started up on 10th September 2008 and was shut down on 18th September 2008. It is due to restart in Nov 2009. It final cost is estimated at $Aus 20 Billion.
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UPDATE: 4 JUL 2012
CERN CLAIMS HIGGS BOSON PARTICLE EXISTS
On the 4 July 2012 CERN announced that they had the proof (It is a statistical likelihood) that the Higgs Boson particle exists.
Forbes magazine estimates the cost of finding the Higgs Boson particle to be $13.25 billion so far. The running costs for the Big Hadron Collider at CERN are $5.5 billion annually. The electricity costs for the Large Hadron Collider are a staggering $23.5 million a year.
But many ask is the Large Hadron Collider a luxury we can no longer afford? The Guardian 22 Sept 2009
