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The Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva is 17 miles (27 kilometers) long. It’s an incredible machine capable of releasing 14 TeV (Tera-electronvolts) of energy, which gave the Europeans the lead in experimental physics. But back in the early 80s, there was going to be another beast that could have obliterated the LHC’s record figures right here in the USA: the Desertron.
Desertron. What an awesome name. Officially—and for the boring types—it was known as the Superconducting Super Collider, a whooping 54.1 miles (87 kilometres) of tunnels capable of producing a collision energy of 40 TeV. This titanic complex was going to be operative in Waxahachie, Texas, south of Dallas.
Conceived in 1983, the Desertron project started in 1987, when Congress approved $4.4 billion for the project.
Construction began in 1991 but Desertron was cancelled only two years later in favor of another major endeavor: the International Space Station. Some argue that the ISS wasn’t as good for science as Desertron. The idea of the ISS was born after the end of the Cold War and, rather than being a tool for scientific supremacy, it represented a new era of international cooperation in a world that needed to be free of the risk of nuclear apocalypse. But more than the political symbol of a new world, the ISS was also designed to turn part of the former Soviet Union’s military industrial complex into an era of peaceful international space collaboration.
The project soon went over budget, with the cost estimation reaching $14 billion when it was cancelled in 1993. At that time, $2 billion had been spent already, distributed between buildings, hardware and the construction of 14.6 miles (23.5 kilometers) of tunnels.
The abandoned Desertron complex’s building in Waxahachie, Texas. [Wikipedia and Sometimes Interesting]
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I never knew that I was living “right here in the USA”
Indeed, it would be nice if they’d spend the time to either-
A: Edit/rewrite the US articles a bit so they’re more appropriate for us brits or…
B: Not post American stories at all.
Well they’ve already commented about B. There are only 4 uk writers compared to the 20 odd in the US so if it was UK only this place would be very bare.
Maybe the articles could have a “This article comes from America, bitches!” at the top.
Ah, I wasn’t aware of that, I did wonder what the ratio was. Yes, some sort of label or something would be a satisfactory compromise.
I only found out a couple of days ago from another commenter’s comment, so I don’t blame you for being unaware.
Although I’d probably be quite happy if they didn’t Bring Sam Biddle’s articles across. Most of them are garbage or extremely Apple biased.
But then where would you get the awesome/horrifying avatar pictures from?!
I’m sure I could find one that annoys someone…
Maybe Elves at Helms Deep?
Don’t start that already! We don’t mention Elves at Helms Deep, EVER!
Doesn’t exactly take long to proof read and edit the posts coming from GizUS it is literally a five minute job to edit a few words or add a disclaimer to the top. And they don’t post enough of these articles to claim its too time consuming.
I am sure they have things they would rather do but nobody said work always has to be fun, sometimes its just work. By not taking the small amount of time to localise the posts it not only defeats the purpose of having a gizUK it shows that they aren’t taking pride in their work.
no it is not the larest collider,ever.what if someone starts a bigger one tomorrow,the word yer looking for is yet,not ever,your as bad as everyone else,ever tends to mean in the future as well.
also,it was never a collider,the only thing that collided were a couple of builders trucks in the tunnels.
a better description would be.
the usa’s attempt at worlds most expensive hole in the ground,yet.
*Facepalm*
Seconded.
Thirded.
Infinited – if possible.
If I was uneducated and stupid I’d probably agree.
The LHC had over 40,000 software faults which were discovered by 2011, which means the principle that a discovery must be replicated to be verified cannot happen, firstly because by now the US has shut down most of its programme, secondly that the results given for the HIGGS bosun can only be replicated by using the LHC post 2011 data.
By this record Desertron would have found the thing within 12 months of operation, not 20 years.
Wouldn’t quite have worked that way – the tech in this would have been circa 10 years older than the LHCs. And it would have inevitably become political, whereas LHC is international collaboration.
Old and works beats new and broken every time EddyCJ
The LHC isn’t broken! But I get your point, just saying that it probably would have taken this super collider 5 or so years to get the results the LHC gets in a year.