JUL 10, 2001 Particle Physicists Plan the Next Big Thing By JAMES GLANZ
SNOWMASS VILLAGE, Colo., July 7 - The directors of major physics laboratories in Europe, the United States and Japan gathered at this mountain resort this week to make plans for a new particle accelerator they all agreed would be so large, powerful and expensive that it could be built only if they all cooperated on a scale without parallel in scientific history.
The machine could cost more than $6 billion, would measure roughly 20 miles from one side to the other and would require so many advanced technologies that no single country could supply them all. Its goal would be to mine the areas opened up by evidence indicating that ultrapowerful new accelerators may be crucial in explaining not just the nature of matter and energy but also the birth of the universe and the structure of space and time themselves.
According to some theories, the machine could see evidence for previously unknown dimensions, beyond the usual four, lurking right under humanity's noses. Elusive particles that account for most of the mass of the entire universe - the so-called dark matter - could also turn up. [snip]