Although funding has been restored for the superconducting supercollider, the skies have not cleared over the Dallas-based project, as well-founded fears of another budget wrangle next year persist, say SSC officials. The Senate voted on August 3 in favor of continued SSC funding after the House voted the project down on June 17, but physicists associated with the SSC say they are still wary. They are concerned over a Congress that will have as many as 130 new members after this fall's election and of a possible new president, Bill Clinton, whose vice presidential running mate, Sen. Al Gore, has in the past voted against the SSC. This wariness has already resulted in reduced morale and in difficulties in attracting foreign money and collaborations, as well as new scientists for the SSC lab itself, scientists say.
"It was a rough summer on people," says SSC director Roy Schwitters. And despite ...
