Tunnel Visions
The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider
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.
Contents:
Preface
Chapter 1. Origins of the Super Collider
Chapter 2. A New Frontier Outpost, 1983-1988
Chapter 3. Selling the Super Collider, 1983-1988
Chapter 4. Settling in Texas, 1989-1991
Chapter 5. Washington and the World, 1989-1992
Chapter 6. The Demise of the SSC, 1991-1994
Chapter 7. Reactions, Recovery, and Analysis
Epilogue The Higgs Boson Discovery
Appendix 1. Physics at the TeV Energy Scale
Appendix 2. List of Interviews
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Index
About the Author
Michael Riordan, a physicist and science historian, is author of "The Hunting of the Quark" and co-author of "Crystal Fire".
Lillian Hoddeson, the Thomas Siebel Professor Emerita of the History of Science at the University of Illinois, is co-author of "Crystal Fire", "Critical Assembly", "True Genius", and "Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience".
Adrienne W. Kolb, the Fermilab archivist, is co-author of "Fermilab: Physics, the Frontier, and Megascience".
Reviews
"'Tunnel Visions' is the story of the national and international maneuvers to take the next big step in particle accelerators that had brought a string of Nobel Prizes to scientists in the U. S. and Europe: the Superconducting Super Collider. Though specialists will find much here of value, no specialized knowledge is necessary to find the story of the rise and fall of the SSC project fascinating. Focusing on the scientific, technical, and political conflicts that led to delays, ever rising costs, and eventually the SSC's cancelation by Congress, 'Tunnel Visions' is a true techno-thriller" – Burton Richter, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics
"Riordan, Hoddeson, and Kolb meticulously piece together how regional and budgetary politics, mismatches between technical cultures, sniping from condensed-matter physicists, and administrative blindness by high energy physicists gradually turned the SSC, in Congress's eyes, into a monstrous, unsupportable boondoggle. 'Tunnel Visions' is a layered, insightful story of a grand failure – and one of the first great histories of American physicists' painful transition into our post-Cold War world" – Cyrus C. M. Mody, Rice University
"Physicists create particle collisions so they can sift through the debris for clues to how nature is put together. The authors of 'Tunnel Visions' see the SSC's demise as a saga of colliding communities, which they sift through for clues to understand the interactions involved in large scientific projects. This book raises important questions about how to build, coordinate, and manage the network of leaders, administrators, overseers, and congressmen needed for large scientific projects in the 21st century – and about how this network, if ruptured, can be repaired. This is a fascinating, well-researched account of a turning point in American science" – Robert Crease, Stony Brook University
