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The Superconducting Super Collider's Frontier Outpost, 1983–1988

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Abstract

In 1993, after an optimistic beginning followed by a half-decadeof conflict, the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project wasabandoned. In an era of `Big Science', a major scientificenterprise collapsed. Why? We employ the metaphor of the`frontier outpost' to analyse a critical moment in the history ofthis vastly expensive project, when the physicists who designedthe machine were forced to recognize that traditional post-warscientific values were no longer in harmony with governmentpriorities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of History, University of Illinois, 309 Gregory Hall, Urbana, IL, 6l801, USA

    Lillian Hoddeson

  2. Fermilab, History and Archives Project, P.O. Box 500, M.S. 109, Batavia, Illinois, 60510, USA

    Adrienne W. Kolb

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  1. Lillian Hoddeson
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  2. Adrienne W. Kolb
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Hoddeson, L., Kolb, A.W. The Superconducting Super Collider's Frontier Outpost, 1983–1988. Minerva 38, 271–310 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026569616118

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1026569616118

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