- The Collider Calamity (a new C.C. problem)
of exactly the type that I always expected to start to appear in 2006 or so. It explains that the U.S. experimental particle physics will move overseas. At the Tevatron, only B-physics has the ability to compete with (or beat) the LHC. And B-physics, in which George W. Bush is an expert, is probably not a sufficient justification to continue with these colliders. The calamity started when Reagan's Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) was cancelled in 1993, during the Clinton-Gore era. For Al Gore, this decision was nothing strange because Al Gore openly prefers junk science such as the "climate change" over serious scientific fields such as particle physics.
The Scientific American suggests that the only way to restore the American pride - and the boost that the development of high-energy physics gives to technology, medicine, and economy in general - is to build the ILC on the American soil even though its price will be comparable to the cancelled SSC. If supersymmetry is found by the LHC, surely the American ILC will be a necessary condition for the U.S. to remain a superpower in 2020 or so. ;-)
