‘China won’t succeed where US has failed’: future of Beijing’s super collider in question after Nobel laureate’s harsh words
Leading physicist labels project a funding ‘black hole’ with little scientific value
A plan to develop a super particle collider in China may be in jeopardy following a negative assessment by a Nobel laureate, according to physicists.
On Sunday, Dr Yang Chen-ning, co-winner of the Nobel Prize in physics in 1957 and now living on campus at Tsinghua University in Beijing, released an article on WeChat opposing the construction of the collider.
He said the project would become an investment “black hole” with little scientific value or benefit to society, sucking resources away from other research sectors such as life sciences and quantum physics.
The first stage of the project was estimated to cost 40 billion yuan (HK$46 billion) by 2030, and the total cost would exceed 140 billion yuan when construction is completed in 2050, making it the most expensive research facility built in China.