Super slump
When the US Congress voted to cancel the Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) last year, a lot of money had already been sunk into the project. Now with the biggest technological project in science definitely dead, the state of Texas - which had given 650 ha of land and about US $500 million to the project - is trying to auction off some remnants of the SSC (Science, Vol 269).
A US $65 million linear accelerator and about 14,000 square metres of office space are to be auctioned. The other major contributor, the department of energy, has written off its US $2 bilhon investment.