Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider

by Michael Riordan, Lillian Hoddeson, Adrienne W. Kolb

Starting in the 1950s, US physicists dominated the search for elementary particles; aided by the association of this research with national security, they held this position for decades. In an effort to maintain their hegemony and track down the elusive Higgs boson, they convinced President Reagan and Congress to support construction of the multibillion-dollar Superconducting Super Collider project in Texas—the largest basic-science project ever attempted. But after the Cold War ended and the estimated SSC cost surpassed ten billion dollars, Congress terminated the project in October 1993.
           
Drawing on extensive archival research, contemporaneous press accounts, and over one hundred interviews with scientists, engineers, government officials, and others involved, Tunnel Visions tells the riveting story of the aborted SSC project. The authors examine the complex, interrelated causes for its demise, including problems of large-project management, continuing cost overruns, and lack of foreign contributions. In doing so, they ask whether Big Science has become too large and expensive, including whether academic scientists and their government overseers can effectively manage such an enormous undertaking.

Genres: Science

480 pages, Hardcover

First published November 16, 2015

Reviews

[Alan Poon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the history of the conception, construction, and ultimately, the demise of the Superconducting Super Collider. The three co-authors collaborated on different chapters; thus, this reader finds unnecessary repetitions in the analysis of how billions were spent before the project had to be shut down. Chapter 7 ("Reactions, Recovery, and Analysis") provides an excellent analysis on why the project failed to finish, and should be a must-read for those interested in "Big Science" projects.


George Santayana once famously wrote "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it"; here are a few excerpts from the book that could prove prophetic in the future funding of big scientific projects in the current political climate:


-"..because of budget conflicts with other high-profile programs (including ....`Star Wars,' the Orient Express space plane and Space Station Freedom), the [Domestic Policy] council had become deadlocked over the SSC. Expected increases in federal revenues due to supply-side economics had not materialized, and little new funding was going to be available for new projects." [my italics. Recall that these huge projects were pushed during the Reagan years, and supply-side economics still dominate the thinking of many contemporary economists]


-"Congress has declared war on basic scientific research, and the Superconducting Super Collider is the first fatality....Science is an easy target for an anti-intellectual society obsessed with cutting a budget deficit that science has nothing to do with...Now that the Cold War is over, anti-intellectualism is reasserting itself against science, often dressed in humanistic rhetoric but dedicated to the proposition that ignorance, prejudice and superstition are better guides to action than knowledge." [quote by Tom Siegfried - science editor of the Dallas Morning New]


- "Despite the added difficulty or organizing and managing them, pure-science projects at the multibillion-dollar scale should henceforth be attempted only as international enterprises involving interested nations from the outset as essentially equal partners. Nations that attempt to go it alone on such immense projects are probably doomed failure like the Superconducting Super Collider."

[Derek · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was once transcribed endless hours of interviews for this book. It really is interesting to think through many of the issues related to basic and big science. The authors are all very accomplished historians of science.

[lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little repetitive but so very intriguing and well researched

[Peyton McFarlain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informative and interesting look into the politics and the history behind the multi billion dollar hole in the ground in Texas.