Are there any scientific research projects in modern times that have invested a lot of effort but have never broken through?

SSC, American Superconducting Collider, in Texas. This is definitely the most expensive failed project, and the final construction was terminated by Clinton. The project cost more than $8.2 billion. More than twice the budget. Later, it was opposed by Congress and some scientists. I think Clinton will regret this decision after leaving office. Since then, American high-energy physics has lagged behind Europe. A generation of high-energy physicists was forced to change direction, and now there is the dating of high-energy physics in the United States. Technical reserves have also disappeared. Nowadays, most accelerator talents in the United States come from the former Soviet Union, German and China. The superconducting collider is definitely a pain in the hearts of the previous generation of American accelerators and high-energy physicists. Most of my bosses used to be SSC researchers, but now they are old, so it's hard to talk about SSC. Briefly introduce the tragic history of SSC: at a series of conferences on the future development of international accelerators held from 1978 to 1979, scientists began to discuss the proton collider with a mass of 20TeV. 1982, American scientists first proposed the idea of superconducting super collider. 1In the autumn of 983, the US Department of Energy approved formal research, and in February of the same year, it began to study the technical and economic feasibility of the 20TeV collider. 1in the autumn of 984, a central design team with Lawrence Berkeley Lab as the main body was established, led by Professor Maury Tigner. 1988165438+1October, Aries County, Texas was determined as the most suitable address. 1989 1 month, SSC laboratory was established. 199 1, the first batch of main projects started construction. 1June, 993, the tunnel construction began. By the autumn of 1993, about 23 kilometers of tunnels had been dug. SSC involves 200 research institutions and 2000 scientists from all over the world. SSC was supported by Reagan, Bush and Clinton. The Ministry of Energy also announced that South-South cooperation is the first choice for scientific research projects. South-South cooperation companies signed 45,000 contracts, benefiting 48 states. South-South cooperation is regarded as a project to invest in the future. If SSC is not approved, American scientists can only give up cutting-edge science and a generation of students will be lost. At that time, there will be no suitable physicist candidates, and the foundation of high-energy physics research established in 50 years will collapse. Continuing SSC is conducive to maintaining the leading position of the United States in physical research. However, with the progress of the project, the criticism of SSC has become increasingly fierce. 1988 The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) pointed out in its report "Potential Risks and Benefits of Establishing SSC" that in five years, SSC may account for 6% ~ 7% of all federally funded basic research and 13% of physical science. Unless Congress significantly increases funding for other related fields, SSC will crowd out other basic scientific research. At the beginning of 1993, the General Audit Office made a report that was unfavorable to the project. After analyzing the whole contract, the report thinks that the whole project cost overruns and the progress lags behind. The report concludes that Congress will face great pressure to increase federal funds to complete the project. At the same time, famous scientists also joined the opposition. For example, 1977 Nobel Prize winner philip anderson publicly accused officials of the Department of Energy of lying to Congress, while SSC scientists remained silent about the inaccuracies; For example, Erich Bloch, the leader of NSF, said in a congress of 199 1 that SSC's funding has increased by 120%, but research in other fields is begging, which is simply unfair. 199310/0/0/0/2 1 The Senate and the House of Representatives passed the proposal of "terminating SSC to reduce the deficit budget".199310/0/0 on October 26th, the House of Representatives passed a resolution of 30. After the procedural steps of the Senate, the bill was signed and implemented by President Clinton. At this point, SSC is really dead. In order to close the project, Congress allocated another $64 million to complete the aftermath during the suspension of construction. At this point, American high-energy physics suffered a big loss.