Book ID: CBB218823297

Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider (2015)

unapi

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.

...More
Reviewed By

Review Leib Celnik (2018) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Scientia Canadensis: Journal of the History of Canadian Science, Technology, and Medicine (pp. 111-112). unapi

Review Raffaele Pisano (2015) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 271-273). unapi

Review Vitaly Pronskikh (2016) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Endeavour: Review of the Progress of Science (p. 136). unapi

Review Catherine Westfall (October 2016) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Technology and Culture (pp. 1036-1037). unapi

Review Seidel, Robert W.; Crease, Robert P. (2016) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Physics in Perspective (pp. 148-154). unapi

Review Amy Fisher (2017) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 234-236). unapi

Review Spencer Weart (2016) Review of "Tunnel Visions: The Rise and Fall of the Superconducting Super Collider". American Journal of Physics (pp. 318-319). unapi

Citation URI
https://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB218823297/

Similar Citations

Article Thomas Heinze; Olof Hallonsten; (2017)
The reinvention of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 1992–2012 (/isis/citation/CBB100710470/)

Book Phalkey, Jahnavi; (2013)
Atomic State: Big Science in Twentieth-Century India (/isis/citation/CBB001213742/)

Article Riordan, Michael; (2000)
The Demise of the Superconducting Super Collider (/isis/citation/CBB000110055/)

Thesis Snow, Whitney Adrienne; (2013)
Tung Tried: Agricultural Policy and the Fate of a Gulf South Oilseed Industry, 1902--1969 (/isis/citation/CBB001567506/)

Article Andrew C. Baker; (2019)
Risk, Doubt, and the Biological Control of Southern Waters (/isis/citation/CBB702218146/)

Article Cittadino, Eugene; (2004)
Borderline Science: Expert Testimony and the Red River Boundary Dispute (/isis/citation/CBB000470997/)

Book Oreskes, Naomi; Krige, John; (2014)
Science and Technology in the Global Cold War (/isis/citation/CBB001551121/)

Article Bodnarczuk, Mark; Hoddeson, Lillian; (2008)
Megascience in Particle Physics: The Birth of an Experiment String at Fermilab (/isis/citation/CBB000950434/)

Article Rentetzi, Maria; (2008)
The U.S. Radium Industry: Industrial In-house Research and the Commercialization of Science (/isis/citation/CBB000932239/)

Article Lave, Rebecca; Doyle, Martin; Robertson, Morgan; (2010)
Privatizing Stream Restoration in the US (/isis/citation/CBB001034682/)

Book Bernstein, Jeremy; (2013)
A Palette of Particles (/isis/citation/CBB001213177/)

Article Paris, Elizabeth; (2001)
Lords of the ring: The fight to build the first U.S. electron-positron collider (/isis/citation/CBB000100454/)

Book Mirowski, Philip; (2011)
Science-Mart: Privatizing American Science (/isis/citation/CBB001210019/)

Book Berman, Elizabeth Popp; (2012)
Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine (/isis/citation/CBB001201809/)

Article Johnston, Sean F.; (2009)
Implanting a Discipline: The Academic Trajectory of Nuclear Engineering in the USA and UK (/isis/citation/CBB000932243/)

Authors & Contributors
Baker, Andrew C.
Hein Brookhuis
Heinze, Thomas
Snow, Whitney Adrienne
Krige, John
Bergman, James Henry
Concepts
Science and government
Atomic, nuclear, and particle physics
Big science
Science and economics
Physics
Science and politics
Time Periods
20th century, late
21st century
20th century
20th century, early
Places
United States
Texas (U.S.)
Soviet Union
Gulf of Mexico
Southern states (U.S.)
Oklahoma (U.S.)
Institutions
SCK CEN Belgian Nuclear Research Centre
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC)
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (United States)
Comments

Be the first to comment!

{{ comment.created_by.username }} on {{ comment.created_on | date:'medium' }}

Log in or register to comment