While the morale of the high-energy physicists, particularly in the United States, was severely dented by the cancellation of the U.S. Superconducting Super Collider (SSC) project in 1993, they did not dwell on that setback for long. Soon researcherswere cooking up plans for an entirely new and truly international venture: the world's longest linear accelerator, Or linac, which could stretch over a distance of 30 kilometers. And late last month, at the 18th International Linac Conference in Geneva,the giant linac took another step from pipe dream to reality, as five different physics groups urifurled blueprints for the machine.
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