Sufficient reasons for nation to build a supercollider

Editor's Note: Chen-Ning Yang, a Chinese-American Nobel Prize-winning physicist, recently advised China publically not to proceed to build a super collider. One major argument is that the project involves huge investment, which can be used for social programs and other research projects. Responding to this, two physicists expressed their views:

Progress will be worth the investment

Professor Yang's first argument in opposing the supercollider is the high cost. Citing the United States' Superconducting Super Collider, which had initially been budgeted at $3 billion in 1989, but was abandoned three years later because of rapidly rising cost. Yang said China should not repeat the mistake made by the US.