Taking The Ax to an $8.3 Billion Gizmo

The Secrets of the Universe may have to wait. Last week the House voted to ax most of next year's $483.7 million funding for the superconducting supercollider, designed to be the world's biggest atom smasher. The collider is meant to reveal the mysteries of the sub-sub-atomic world by crashing particles together inside an 86-km (54-mile) oval tunnel that will literally surround the town of Waxahachie, Texas. But it also bears the world's biggest price tag: $8.3 billion all told, and rising. That was too super for even the House.

The Senate may differ, and the President certainly does, so the collider could make a comeback. But mixed feelings on the Hill could scare away the Japanese, whose hoped-for investment in the project has already proved a tough sell. And if it doesn't survive, the secrets of the universe could be unraveled anyway: a European lab is working on a collider that is nearly as powerful.