George Bush vomited & set Physics back by a decade

All it takes it one upset stomach to change the course of history. This is a story about the greatest failure in American physics: The Superconducting Super Collider. Part 2 of 3.
Part 1: • Ronald Reagan & the Bi...
Part 3: • Bill Clinton & the Day...
The primary source on all things SSC is the book "Tunnel Visions", which I used as a blueprint to map out the series. Many of the quotes are taken from that book, which used primary interviews and are sourced very extensively. Stuff involving budgets and congress I accessed from the official government websites, including votes on bills and amendments, and inflation calculations were done by myself using an online tool. There are a bunch of other documents I read through such as "The Global Research and Development Landscape and Implications for the Department of Defense", "A TIMELINE OF MAJOR PARTICLE ACCELERATORS", "United States nuclear forces, 2019", "High Energy Physics Advisory Panel's Subpanel on Vision for the Future of High-Energy Physics May 1994", "The Intellectual Spoils of War? Defense R&D, Productivity and International Spillovers", "Accessory to War by Neil DeGrasse Tyson", "The Mission by David W Brown", "The God Particle (The Higgs boson) by Leon Lederman".
My Twitter and Patreon:
/ bobbybroccole
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Thumbnail assistance from @Hotcyder
0:00 Call me Tex
11:05 The Revolving Door
18:39 All Hands on Deck
30:18 The Three Pronged Attack
46:53 Burning Bridges, Mending Fences
59:20 Swords Drawn
Tryst by REPULSIVE
All other music by @WhiteBatAudio:
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Endless Night
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The Heist
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[@BobbyBroccoli]

Did you know I have a Twitter and Patreon? The rumours are indeed true. Check the description. FOOTNOTES: Best read after watching. 1. All monetary values have been adjusted for inflation and are expressed in constant 2021 US dollars. I’ve researched to the best of my ability based on the dates and values I was able to find, but there are likely a few instances where the inflation calculation is off by a year or two. However, the orders of magnitude are what’s important in this story, and minor calculation mistakes should not detract from the story. Occasionally I will reference funding for Fiscal Year 19XX. For example, Fiscal Year 1989, this refers to funding allocated by congress in 1988, but which was made available to the project in 1989. Regarding the votes in congress a lightbulb that is neither green nor red is someone who did not vote on a given bill or amendment. For the maps of state voting patterns an un-lit state is not one that abstained from voting, but rather a tie between aye and nay votes. 2. As some have pointed out in the comments, Waxahachie is pronounced more like WOX than WAX. Another one of my classic mispronunciations. Alternatively, you can view this as an immersive intentional mistake, as a city slicker unfamiliar with the region much like the many East and West coast academics who had to uproot their lives to move to the middle of nowhere. 3. The Desertron nickname for the SSC existed several years before the Texas site was chosen, as a collider of such a massive size would likely require an empty and vast environment to build it. The name still stuck around, despite the fact that Waxahachie isn’t really a desert. It’d be more accurate to call it the Prairietron. 4. One thing to note about Texas in congress is that it lost a couple of its key members during the life of the SSC. Speaker of the house Jim Wright resigned due to an ethics investigation, and Lloyd Bentsen left the senate to be Bill Clinton’s treasury secretary. 5. As a general note I do my best to find period-appropriate photos of everyone in the story, but some individuals are hard to track down online. They may have photos from very recently, or when they were very young, or even none at all. You may also notice that some of the C-SPAN clips are out of chronological order, they have been edited this way for clarity. Some amendment and bill debates were uneventful, and some were explosive. I wanted to prioritize the memorable one-liners that summarize the different sides of the issue. 6. I meant to say Ellis district for Joe Barton’s district. I confused it with the town of Ennis which is in the same county. 7. Doug Pewitt was not named acting project manager the first time on paper, but in terms of his responsibilities he basically was. 8. Although Edward Siskin and Joseph Cipriano were both effectively operating outside the management chain by reporting directly to Admiral Watkins, Edward Siskin was on-paper a member of the SSC’s on-site management team, whereas Cipriano was the project manager at the DOE’s site office for the SSC. Past DOE projects had separate DOE offices to oversee large scale projects like this, but in this case Cipriano was given much more authority than normal that let him completely take over contracts. 9. After his very brief tenure as acting project manager Theodore Kozman replaced Helen Edwards as head of accelerators. Tom Bush would later be named an associate director of the SSC lab. Paul Reardon and Edward Siskin eventually agreed to have Reardon step aside as project manager for a different role. There was lots of other managerial positions I did not have time to mention in this video, so I focused mainly on the top level positions with a high turnover. 10. It was technically the outgoing Reagan admin who pushed for the Ronald Reagan National Accelerator name, but the Bush admin didn’t press the issue. 11. Robert Hunter was technically an appointment from the Reagan admin, and thus was not immediately replaced when Bush took office. He was not pushed to resign solely over the SSC, he also had controversial recommendations for the country’s nuclear fusion programs which would result in different types of fusion research competing for funding under the DOE budget. For this, and the disputes over the SSC, he was publicly criticized by several important members of congress, leading Bush and Watkins to ask him to resign to avoid further embarrassment. 12. This is a random piece of trivia unrelated to the story but Congressman Tom Bevill has the bizarre honour of being the first person to answer a 9-1-1 emergency call. The system was developed in Alabama and he answered the ceremonial kick-off call. 13. A bit of a mistake on my part, I reference bill H.R. 4380 (the Supercollider authorization act of 1990) as being introduced by Boehlert. He introduced amendment 434 to it which contained the requirement for foreign funding, in addition to a bunch of other things in the actual bill itself. Both the bill and his amendment passed the house, neither made it through the senate as described in the video. 14. I realized there is a bit of an audio mistake when I mentioned a pair of short hot-conflicts when I really only talk about one. Originally I had included a small section on the invasion of Panama in 1989, but I ultimately cut it because it messed with the pacing. But to summarize: Bush was fed up with the military dictator Manuel Noriega laundering money Colombian drug cartels and US forces stormed the capital to oust him, killing anywhere between 300-600 civilians in the process, angering the international community. The buried-lead here is that Noriega was in fact a paid CIA collaborator in the past, and the CIA had been aware of his crimes since the 1970s, and they only turned on him when he was started antagonizing the US. 15. The first Japanese-US summit I show in Q2 of 1990 actually occurred when Japanese PM Uno was still in power. 16. Japan was in a weird spot in terms of the Gulf War. They gave billions of dollars to the war effort but were heavily criticized for not participating, but they were limited by their post world war 2 constitution due to its non aggression clause. Japan eventually ended up sending part of its navy fleet to do minesweeping, which opened the door to Japan participating in anything the UN deemed as “peacekeeping”. 17. With regards to the Japan’s dominance in microelectronics, I use the vague term of “semiconductor market share” when I could have been more specific. It’s my understanding the 100% to 5% decrease for the US in just over a decade is for the world share of merchant semiconductor firms, i.e. firms that sell chips to other companies. This does not include captive firms, i.e. vertically integrated companies such as IBM which make chips for internal use in other products. A better comparison might be DRAM, where the US went from having a 70% market share of to 20%, and Japan went from 30% to 75% in the same period. 18. EDIT from a commenter: 36:30 You don't need to get to room temperature to ditch the very expensive helium cooling. Atmospheric pressure liquid nitrogen cooling is a lot easier and cheaper than helium. YBCO super conductors where the first ones that really broke through the magic 77K "high-T" barrier that makes cooling them with LN2 possible and they are a late 80s development. While so far (as far as I'm aware) no particle collider has been developed using high T super conductors, an argument could be made that the SSC should have been the project to do that in.

[@BeyondSunset]

As both a Patreon-haver and a patron, I can confirm that being a patron definitely raises your sex appeal and makes a real difference for independent creators.

[@TheZexionify]

Hate to be that guy, its Dave Obey not Dan Obey.

[@mielole]

Did you really purchase a phone line for a one-second joke?

[@DrGriff]

I live in Dallas and Waxahachie is definitely feels like the middle of nowhere. It’s an hour away (or more with how bad traffic is) and nothing is there.

[@BlueCosmology]

Really good video, though the title isn't really true. The SSC would have been operational a decade before the LHC sure, but it would not have advanced physics by a decade. In particular the main goal of both the SSC and LHC (and the main achievement of the LHC) discovering the Higgs would certainly have not occured a decade earlier. Three things primarily held up the discovery of the Higgs 1) Luminosity (more or less how many collisions per second you could have in your collider) 2) Computing 3) PDF and alphaS uncertainties (more or less how well we understand what's in the proton). The SSC was planned to have a much lower luminosity than the LHC, and the LHC managed to run much more than it was originally planned. This was largely due to the LHC tunnel having more straight sections than it should since it was built in a tunnel that wasn't designed for a hadron collider. This limited it's energy, but gave it the ability to have much better beam dynamics and stability than any other accelerator, while it was likely the SSC would not have even managed to run at design luminosity. A particular issue the SSC would have had for luminosity is being the first and still only high energy circular accelerator to be planned to not have a significant pre-acceleration stage (this is one of the biggest reasons that fermilab not being picked was seen as so bizzare, since fermilab would have had a pre-accelerator already made in the form of the Tevatron), requiring their magnets to work over a much larger range of magnetic field strengths. This would mean they couldn't just be optimised to be stable at high field strengths, which would of course mean they would be less stable at high field strengths which would limit the luminosity. How much this could be overcome is unknown, no one has ever attempted to do such a bizarre design before or after. Computing was obviously **much** weaker in the early 2000s compared to the early 2010s. PDF and alphaS uncertainties are largely dominated by measurements from other experiments (deep inelastic scattering experiments) which had improved greatly by the early 2010s compared to the early 2000s. Because of all of these reasons (and more) the SSC would have been much slower at discovering the Higgs after becoming operational than the LHC was. It's very unlikely that the SSC would have been able to discover the Higgs earlier than the late 00s, maybe 2-4 years before the LHC, definitely not a decade.

[@SaltyChickenDip]

The idea of not having a cost management system is mind blowing. "I need 10 billion but I don't want to tell you how I spend it". The poor accountants on the project.

[@dustrose8101]

At that point you're basically begging for your project to be escorted to the guillotine.

[@sdgfvfd]

I am too an engineer, and I hate our managers too But yeah, we all love to have the latest, baddest toys to play with lol

[@lainwired3946]

bUt WeRe ScIeNtIsTs

[@mauz791]

"micromanagement"

[@greatkentuckian9032]

They hated bureaucracy more than any other political group.

[@adamjacobs7694]

I literally laughed out loud at the “He Became Non-Linear” thing what a great descriptor. Can anyone find source on that I wanna read the whole story

[@BobbyBroccoli]

That's the extent of the story I read. There was a small tidbit about how the physicists sent a letter demanding more authority to manage the project and he wrote comments on the letter margins that read "INSANE" and "NUTS"

[@adamjacobs7694]

@@BobbyBroccoli haha thanks keep it up brother

[@Peterscraps]

I had to pause the video at that part. I'm so used to that phrase being used to describe workflows, that to hear it be ascribed to a state of mind threw me into a silent fit. It gave me the impression the person who wrote it wanted to describe vivid anger without irritating any of the higher-ups whom might have read it.

[@davidwright7193]

Well given that the result was that the future of US particle physics was going to end up very linear it is particularly poetic.

[@Dallen9]

It's a funny and smartly written letter if your on a collage site ask someone in the ROTC if they can show you this letter. Army loves to use the Letter to dunk on the Navy.

[@acefighterpilot]

I work in a high energy physics lab at a top public US university. This whole debacle is pretty much the only outcome I could expect from having physicists manage projects. Last year the sixty something year old Tevatron veteran physicist designing our final installation was heard to say, "I should really learn this whole 3D CAD thing."

[@orchdork775]

Glad to hear there are people working in science who are willing to accept that being a genius in physics doesn't mean you are a genius at managing mega-projects and allocating billions of dollars in funds. It just seems unrealistic and honestly ridiculous to expect total control when your project is funded by taxpayer money, because of course the government is going to have a say in how the money is allocated in order to protect the American people. There also seemed to be a problem with the scientists focusing too much on the way they believed things *should* work, rather than accepting the reality of how they actually work, which led to so much effort being spent on disrupting things instead of just finding the most efficient and effective ways to work with the framework that had already been laid out. Another thing I noticed is the hypocrisy of many scientists who insisted that congress and the taxpayers should be willing to spend the extra billions on increasing the budget because of how important this project was for science and humanity, yet had no problem abandoning the project once they had to make any compromises or sacrifices, themselves. It's like they had the view that either the project succeeds with them, or fails without them, even to the point of using their status as a respected figure to take a bunch of other project members, too. It drives me crazy, because as a science lover, I'm very passionate about gaining information and understanding, so seeing *actual* scientists intentionally disrupt potential progress in their own field just because of their ego and self centeredness is shocking and dissapointing. Bias is talked about in science all the time, yet so many scientists seem to still be incapable of acknowledging/admitting their own bias. It's like they are relying on their gut to tell them if their actions and beliefs are correct, so if they *feel* like they are doing the right thing, then they insist that they can't be wrong. In reality, you have to ignore your gut feeling and instead use logic and reasoning (and rational compassion) to determine what your bias is and how to counteract it. The fact that literal scientists who champion logic and reasoning are so incapable of applying those principles to themselves is infuriating. Idk, I've always been extremely self reflective and obsessive about ensuring that my thoughts and beliefs are rational and fair (I have ocd and that is one of my main obsessions) so I'm extremely well practiced at not purely listening to my emotions when it comes to decision making, particularly when determining who is in the wrong in a situation. I know that just because I feel hurt doesn't mean that the other person did something wrong. I know that my feelings are affected by my past trauma and experiences, therefore they should not be relied upon if I'm trying to make a rational decision, since my experiences do not always accurately represent the way the world works. It's just frustrating that I as someone who didn't even graduate from college am better able to detect and admit my own bias and implement rational thought processes to replace irrational ones better than literal physicists who are at the top of their field. It goes to show that no matter how smart you are in science, if you aren't adept at self reflection and/or if your beliefs about the world prevent you from being honest with yourself (like if you believe that having bias means you're a bad scientist), then you can't rely on your passive intelligence to prevent bias. Preventing bias and being rational relies on active measures, and is something that you have to learn how to do and implement consciously in order to train yourself to do it. It's just basic CBT, and considering all the papers and studies about neurology and psychology, any experienced scientist should be able to recognize the immense amount of data regarding human bias and all of the ways our subconscious mind tricks us to prevent us from experiencing psychological discomfort. Anyways, sorry for the rant 😂 Also, I'm not at all saying that I'm better than scientists or anything, as the whole reason I'm able to admit my own shortcomings comes from my mental illness and experiences in therapy, and there are a lot of downsides to that. I'm definitely not expecting people to spend 5 hours a day going over their past experiences and imagining all the different ways their actions could have affected other people, or all the arguments that could be made against their beliefs, or questioning the validity of their reasoning for everything they do, but I do wish that people could at least accept that they are not inherently logical or rational, and are actually the exact opposite. Without that realization then people won't be willing to admit when they are being biased, because in their minds that would mean admitting to a personal failing, when it's actually just a natural consequence of how we evolved.

[@kmhkennedy]

Lol

[@jayteegamble]

Yeah, i expected this was going to be a story of politicians messing everything up. But really it's a story of physicists being horribly disorganized, making expensive errors, and just quitting whenever called on their mistakes.

[@Rindiculousfun]

@@jayteegamble haha yup, and the military personnel are the ones that come to the rescue and are not the ignorant bigots that don't listen to reason

[@Viking_Raven]

​@@Rindiculousfun Nah, it's not that deep. It's just a matter of you can't be worker AND manager at the same time.

[@kellybraille]

I am 47 years old, and I have ALWAYS wanted to know what the heck was going on with this project. In 1993 I had just graduated high school, and went on to get math and physics degrees in my Texas hometown. This project touched my life in so many ways over the years (my grandmother sold her near-Waxahachie farm in fear of getting "market value" when the project finally went through, and I have a half dozen other personal stories about that time period). You have connected SO many dots; in a way I feel like I've waited 30 years for this documentary. You had done such an amazing job with it. Thank you SO MUCH.

[@hope5443]

❤

[@dungeonseeker3087]

Dude, you just taught me more about the inner workings of US politics than I had learned throughout my entire life, and you did it in a video about a failed science project, and in a way where I didn't once get bored or disengaged. You are genuinely amongst the KZbin video documentary elite.

[@Elenrai]

considering admiral watkins story so far, I suddenly understand why military juntas decide to take charge poor man must have gotten a bit sick of the shit he was asked to deal with

[@tanjoy0205]

The people who control the Ouse strings control the country .

[@XMysticHerox]

​@@Elenrai He played his own role though. Sure he did some decent stuff but he also pushed the physicists out of the physics project. Sure people like Edwards may not have been the best managers but they were also absolutely vital to the actual project. He saved some costs but took part in dooming the project.

[@bryrusmi4001]

Exactly, which is also a sad commentary on education. I went through high school in the late 90s and this would have been so helpful then.

[@lukecockburn1140]

Who else do you consider the KZbin video documentary elite?

[@PrimMashups]

35:52 i was half-expecting a plot twist where they were gonna rely on jan hendrick schön's organic superconductors. thank god it wasn't the 90's-2000's yet

[@BobbyBroccoli]

I would be lying if I said I didn't make that tangent to tie into a topic my viewers would be familiar with. Better yet, a Bell Labs scientist chaired one of those academic panels.

[@PrimMashups]

@@BobbyBroccoli oh my GOD

[@stevemc01]

@@BobbyBroccoli "Yeah we got a guy who can chalk you up a multimillion to billion dollar budget cut for cheaper magnets that work right there out in the open. Just give us a few moments to check in on him..." "...hey, uhh... I got some 'you're fucked' bad news..."

[@greedtheron8362]

"Why this is nothing new, for many years we made high precision components for delivery to the United States." Nearly fell out of my chair laughing

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Coffee went everywhere lol.

[@dontbeasadsoulja]

yeah that line was the best.

[@KiraSlith]

*Facepalm* They say a desperate man will say anything, but they usually say something half-way believable.

[@KiraSlith]

@@Ronald98 You clearly didn't pay full attention to the video if you're having that hard of an "idiot moment".

[@Ronald98]

@@KiraSlith I'm having an idiot moment? BRUH 🤡

[@juanrojas2595]

My friend's dad was an activist against the collider back when that all went down and now even he regrets it years later.

[@zackbuildit88]

Dang

[@spunktaneouscumbustion8109]

Wait.... Activists are able to tell when they're dumb with hindsight? That's actually very settling

[@FFKonoko]

@@spunktaneouscumbustion8109 its more common than you think. But activism is louder and newsworthy, so you only hear that half, not the retraction or regret. See also, that single paper about the mmr vaccine, behavior of wolves in captivity, brexit...

[@mwperk02]

@@spunktaneouscumbustion8109 I've heard unsettling a million times but this is the first time I heard the word settling used.

[@masonmcgrew9790]

That's because he doesn't understand anything the collider fucked us

[@nooneinparticular3370]

I **CANNOT** believe there will also be a part 3, it's just astounding dude, you are an absolutely legendary madlad.

[@robertjenkins6132]

an abslegmadlad, for short.

[@katevgrady]

Do we know if he does all this himself? I can't believe how good he is at graphics, research, script writing, AND script reading. Like those are four very different skill sets and he just murders them all?? This is my favorite channel currently.

[@CristalianaIvor]

thanks mate, almost missed that this is part 2 lol! gonna watch part 1 afterwards

[@xlyg343]

Six! Six! Six! The number of The Beast!

[@katevgrady]

@@aqua-bery so, so impressive! I hope he reads this, he deserves the praise

[@BrightesteFaeri]

"He became non-linear" i plan to use that in daily life now. what an incredible phrase.

[@RN1441]

Between this and the Schon story, you're making documentaries better than most on traditional TV or streaming services.

[@federicoreali9734]

And for free

[@wren_.]

I found him through the ninovium video, I can’t wait to see the stuff this guy produces in the future

[@jerbear7952]

Its funny hearing people act like TV has been viable for decades. It lost its mojo a looong time ago. The possible exception is NOVA.

[@loganjelinek2226]

"He became non-linear" had me crying for five straight minutes. Thank you so much for including that.

[@wren_.]

she SSC on my nuclear energy budget till i y=x2

[@SullySadface]

NERDS

[@macicoinc9363]

I live less than 200 miles from Fermilab, have a massive interest in particle physics, and go to a University that likely would have partnered with them if it had been built there, you have no idea how much I am coping right now. This is probably the most upset a video has ever made me. Great video, keep up the good work!

[@ssun190]

I'm a particle physicist working at CERN who worked on building these detectors. trust me things aren't as shiny and clean as they appear from the outside. Things have gotten more dysfunctional not less since the 80s.

[@chalkchalkson5639]

​@@ssun190 CERN's detector research does a decent job at trying to sell their relevance to other scientists and politicians though. I'm in medical physics and there you see CERN Medipix pop up all the time. When you can say "not only are these calorimeters for CMS, they will also make next gen PET scanners better" that makes the project easier to sell. I'm personally kind of sceptical of that type of reasoning since you could also just allocate those funds for research on detectors for medical applications directly and probably get more bang for your buck, but the strategy does seem to work. After all, it's the same strategy the space exploration people use. BTW is there even a good reason to go for sub 100ps time resolution of scintillators & photo multipliers in particle physics? CERN spinoff detectors used in PET papers seem to be comparable in speed to other state of the art solutions, wonder whether that is part of their accelerator heritage or added later to make them attractive for PET people

[@ssun190]

@@chalkchalkson5639 Smaller projects like medipix are ran way more efficiently than the enormous multinational collaborations like ATLAS and CMS. I worked with 2 people from the medipix team including one of the timepix chip designers even if I'm not on medipix and they do good work. CERN also constantly gives tours to groups from all over Europe which is also a big plus. I didn't see as much outreach at Fermilab when I was there probably because it's a lot more expensive to fly a class of high school students from California to Chicago than flying students from England to geneva. As far as I can tell, there isn't much animosity towards CERN from the locals because they see it as a job-creating venture.

[@ssun190]

@@chalkchalkson5639 That said I personally experience tonnes of issues inherent to the flat hierarchy of working at a large physics institute. No one pays anyone else's salary, everyone are equal tenured professor. You can't force anyone to do anything or complete their task on time. When you build a computer, you need the CPU, GPU, RAM, power distribution, LCD screen etc to all work together. It's the same way with particle detectors but at least 1000x more precision. Every piece in the system must work and must work together. But this work is spread across 50 institutes all over the world. If anyone fails their part it means someone else has to pick up their slack and get their piece to work. You can't fire them and you can't take their funding and give it to a more competent team. This coupled with grants are awarded by national institutions that don't really know who is capable and who is not. Grants are awarded to professors with no relevant experience all the time. You need to know more than just quantum field theory and statistics to design PCBs with extremely sensitive amplifiers for example. I have personally seen professors utterly fail their projects, had an emergency meeting, and worked with engineers at CERN to essentially do their job for them. Then I see the same professor go on to a different project and write a very similar proposal and are awarded the grant to do the exact same thing only to fail again. No outside institutions ever hear about this because the press releases are always about how we all succeeded together as a collaboration. The national institutions that award grants will think the person did their part as they promised. This doesn't always work though because at some point there are too many failures for the competent institutions to keep up. For example, the FTK upgrade failed and millions of dollars are wasted. But you know maybe it all doesn't matter. What I get from this video is that no one cares unless you waste billions. Just keep it to a M and no one will ever care. Maybe it's just how the sausage gets made as long as enough projects succeed.

[@theondono]

@@ssun190 I considered doing a phd at CERN, and did my masters thesis on an engineering group. It was a mess, and I ended up losing interest in academia all together. The amount of internal politics is insane, and the wasted money is astounding. I though my work there (IC validation) was useful, until I realized that another team in another detector was building *the exact same thing*, but with better funding. Somehow, the idea of using their IC was completely out of the question…

[@nisbahmumtaz909]

One of the most underrated aspects of your videos is your S tier voice. Super clear enunciation, very pleasant tone, and carries the flair of someone that's passionate yet tempered in presenting their knowledge. And of course, that perfect amount of wit to keep it from being too dry. I'm not ashamed to admit that I am superficial enough to be turned off by some video essayists with a particularly grating voice on KZbin. Yours is perhaps one of the best in the business, triumphing many, MANY other high profile narrators. I guess I'm also biased for a fellow scholar. You deserve nothing but the biggest success in what you're doing.

[@theodawson9465]

Couldn't agree more! Some of my absolute favourite video essayists who cover topics I am much more knowledgeable and interested in, I find myself wincing at how they voice themselves.

[@lexacutable]

I don't think it's superficial to admit that the voiceover makes a big difference to the enjoyment of a video. I watch a lot of true crime videos and I'm so tired of hearing over-dramatic enunciation that sounds like it's aimed at schoolchildren. BobbyBroccoli is excellent.

[@e-w-4174]

@@lexacutable It is superficial, but people are allowed.

[@lexacutable]

@@e-w-4174 mmm nope

[@screwyourhandle]

@@e-w-4174 It's not necessarily a superficial thing, there are lots of reasons why people might find certain voices difficult to listen to. For instance I have a couple of brain disorders that affect how I process sound.

[@Rose_Nebula]

I can’t believe how well you’ve managed to captivate me with a detailed play-by-play of the bureaucratic history of a project that was never even built, but somehow, you have. It’s like watching the hull of the Titanic slowly grind against the iceberg, but just when I think the ship is finally gonna sink, it hits yet another iceberg.

[@chrisfuller1268]

I was working at NASA's Lab for High Energy Astrophysics (GSFC) when the SSC lost out to the space station and the scientists were bitterly disappointed. Yeah, physicists are horrible project managers.

[@uydagcusdgfughfgsfggsifg753]

Damn, I had no clue that vomit ended up actually having any consequences beyond the momentary embarrassment lol

[@diepie5144]

when I saw the video title, I was expecting it to be a jab at his monetary policy, not that he had actually thrown up

[@eetuthereindeer6671]

@@diepie5144 well that would have been just confusing if that was what happened with this wording

[@Peterscraps]

1:06:52 you can tell just how unpopular that strong arm was with how many abstained. When faced with the the political equivalent of a choice of rottting meat, they didn't bite.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

***foreshadowing***

[@austinfletchermusic]

Foreshadowing is a dramatic device in which an important plot point is mentioned earlier in the story to return later in a significant way.

[@coldball5578]

@@BobbyBroccoli the plot thickens

[@neosketch27]

tf2

[@EvanJGMegson]

@@neosketch27 :)

[@Sabrowsky]

Watkins' breaking of the laws of physics out of anger and frustration is quite relatable

[@herpsderps9205]

One of my favorite things about your videos is the visual representation of time. I have a hard time following a narrative that hops around time without visual cues to help. Overall you're quite good at balancing facts, interpretation, humor, detail, overview, etc. Keep it up man, I love it.

[@macicoinc9363]

I greatly appreciate you covering both the bureaucratic and physicist dysfunctionality that inevitably lead to the program being cancelled. It's easy to place blame entirely on the government for a lot of failed projects, which is typically well deserved, but it is also just as important to recognize that groundbreaking scientists need to make sacrifices too for things this large to workout. If a project of this scale is attempted again and we don't learn from everyone's mistakes, then it will surely fail as well. Kind of reminds of the prisoner's dilemma, but with the discovery of the Higgs Boson instead of escaping imprisonment lol.

[@vif3182]

"discovery" is a stretch. You can create models of reality that make perfect sense, however actually finding them IN reality is a whole different battle to fight. Higgs was suggested as quite plausible but spending billions and billions to find that out is just too much of a hard sell to most governments. Europe not really doing much else, and Switzerland being a money trove allowed for such 'useful' endeavors to take place.

[@ETBrooD]

Putting blame on the physicists is absurd. Their existence is based on the search for truth, so anything and everything that stands in the way of open discourse is their sworn enemy. Politics concerns itself with power, and entrepreneurship with money, and in both those cases openness often has to take a backseat. The marriage between science and politics or science and entrepreneurship is a recipe for disaster. I know this from first-hand experience.

[@liltonyabc]

@@ETBrooD How do you justify refusal to establish a cost control system?? In direct violation of the law.

[@ETBrooD]

@@liltonyabc Depends on what's packaged into it. Often times management tries to introduce various changes in one go, very much like in politics when they make a package of policies rather than pushing single policies one by one. It's like someone offering you ice cream, but you have to run a whole marathon for it. Most people will obviously say no.

[@briannawaldorf8485]

@@liltonyabc well considering they didn’t have to deal with it until 1980 and they gave them amazing funding. I don’t blame them for not wanting to play ball

[@Roebey]

I know it's not gonna happen but I'd love it if part 3 was called "particle physics in the clinton years"

[@BobbyBroccoli]

You are the 2nd person to request this haha

[@FFKonoko]

Ahhh, good memories of George Woods insane reviews.

[@elmowilcox]

Your defense of Texas at 4:20 is greatly, deeply appreciated.

[@thunderb00m]

yee haw 🤠

[@mwperk02]

Its nice to see Texas wasn't always well whatever you want to call the modern Texas political scene. I am very deeply concerned about it's education system in particular.

[@LuizAlexPhoenix]

Yehaw, call me Tex! 🤠

[@peterkilbridge6523]

​​@@mwperk02You should be. You misspelled "It's" and then misspelled "its".

[@vonBelfry]

Defending its past, at least. There's some changes needed in its modern governance now.

[@basile5490]

An hour long, professional, in-depth video about some niche, historical, sociopolitical and academical subject ? Freak yes. Very good content, please keep doing what you're doing.

[@Nolan-W]

Niche: no Unknown: yes

[@anothermicrobe755]

Your documentaries have quickly become my favorite on youtube. You don't dumb things down or take shortcuts, and you do not try to force a contrived lesson onto a messy story. As a PhD student in science, your work has been incredible for thinking about the complex social processes that power my naively idealistic enthusiasm for basic research. Well done!

[@FFKonoko]

I know this is months gone, but by any chance do you have any examples of documentaries on KZbin that do those things, forcing a lesson or overly dumbing things down? I'm looking to improve my writing and its good to look at failure as well as success when trying to make one's own voice.

[@Rindiculousfun]

@@FFKonoko I feel like Johnny Harris, while great production value, tends to do this quite a bit since he left Vox.

[@BeyondSunset]

Finally! A new broccumentary.

[@silverXnoise]

Don’t miss Part One with Ronnie ROFLcopter Reagan and His Ruinous Reaganettes!

[@johnadams4427]

@@silverXnoise "Ruinous Reaganettes" is such an amazing phrase the progressive Democrats in congress should really start using it to describe the Ted Cruz-es, Mitch McConnells and Lindsay Grahams in that cesspit

[@silverXnoise]

@@johnadams4427 they should start wearing star spangled hotpants and stockings too (in public as well I mean).

[@Tenko72]

Broccumentary is the best name.

[@katnisstangerine]

Underrated comment

[@cusersgrass9198]

Dude, you are one of the best documentary creators. This is such high-quality, engaging, and entertaining content. The visuals are such a unique and refreshing approach to storytelling. I can't imagine how long it takes to make these, but they turn out outstanding every time. Can not wait for Part 3 where everything goes to shit! That's always the fun part.

[@danielaguilar9011]

This is one of the best narrations I’ve ever seen. Some phrases for the ages: “He became non-linear” “The congressional equivalent of taking hostages”

[@minerman60101]

This channel has been elevated to the exclusive position of "I will instantly click a new video from here"

[@ylvavarynkottir2265]

Exactly! This guy and Chubbyemu are instant clicks from me

[@Kitten-Master]

yes! ;‏‏‎‏‏‎‎D

[@a52productions]

Really highlights how complex the leadership role of this kind of big operation is. Schwitters was great with politics and wheel-greasing, but he had to focus on that and not the management of the project itself, the people inside it, or the project's budget. Tigner was an excellent physicist and head of design and such, but it sounds like he was bad at leadership and worse at budgets. Pewitt could handle budgets and logistics, but didn't work well with the eggheads doing the actual work. Really, the project needed ALL of those skills to function, but they all had contradictory incentives that made the project as a whole disorganized and confused, especially with them switching in and out all the time. I doubt hiring all of them at once would have worked well either

[@MimiMcNugget]

Maybe adding another person on top that manages the managers. And then have the trio do their best

[@junebug2325]

@@UkrainiansWillLose too late

[@MenwithHill]

@@MimiMcNugget A bicameral SSC legislature with a physicists party and a DOE party.

[@Hecatom]

It didn't help that the egg heads were irresponsible with the money seeing how against they were to the budget management software

[@templarknight7]

Doesn't seem like Tigner was bad at leadership considering the amount of loyalty he inspired. His leaving resulted in a massive brain drain for the project. Sounds like he was just not good at the politics Schwitters was good at and had already burned too many bridges before he could be tucked back behind the scenes.

[@TysonBuilds]

I love these videos! The way you layout all of the information on these historical stories is fascinating and super easy to follow! Keep up the fantastic work!!!

[@SlXkxmx]

And his son set us back nearly a decade on stem cell research.

[@itays7774]

I love how it's combining two subjects I'm really interested in, science and politics, set in the late/post cold war era. Great video!

[@C.I...]

I thought you were going to say "George Bush, and Vomiting".

[@AbsolXGuardian]

15:37 At this point its just the lack of a death toll and a physically existing failed collider that keeps this from being a WTYP episode

[@Electrolux219]

You know when you think about it a particle accelerator is really just a vacuum tube railway for atoms that reduces them to a Gluon-like homogenate

[@AbsolXGuardian]

@@Electrolux219 this guy gets it. Maybe they just needed to make their magnets more ridged.

[@miss.guidedghosts7858]

I just talked with my mom about this, seeing as she majored in physics in the '80s and worked in dc basically ever since then, and apparently she helped kill the project in its end years.

[@rogainegaming6924]

Why?

[@businessdog5220]

I cannot even tell you how hyped I was for this to come out and how hyped I am for part 3. Keep up the great work!

[@kieranhosty]

This entire channel is incredibly well made, in narration, writing, presentation and detail, well done.

[@jonahkreinberg4264]

YOU DESERVE MORE SUBS. Seriously man, I've watched through your catalogue of docs and every single one presents a lesser known, yet still very engaging and interesting topic. And you don't pull punches with your research. To call it thorough would be an understatement. Seriously, from me, an avid and long-time user of this platform, you are doing some of the best work here. Props.

[@zarnold1995]

I whole heartedly agree! I’ve been watching these for the last 3 hours now!

[@simplythunder9832]

Oh my god this is so insanley well done. The way you structure the video with a 3d envrionment is so awesome. Thank you so much for all your work

[@martinszymanski2607]

hi mr broccoli, just wanted to say that from every purely solo youtuber on this platform you're one of the very few who put so much effort into their content that i would not think a solo project of such magnitude would be possible if you hadn't made it and proven me wrong i am very sorry if my english is slightly crippled here; i am having some difficulties in trying to express the sheer amount of respect i feel for your channel and work ethic. thank you for the content, mr broccoli; i will be eagerly awaiting the final installment of your epic. edit: woo internet points edit #2: zarn. it appears as if my first edit caused the internet point i had acquired to vanish. what a bummer

[@KILOPOWER]

Magnificent. I have no words to describe how amazing this video is. Please, never stop making them. I've watched thousands of hours of KZbin videos and can honestly say that your series are ones of the best on this platform.

[@bjmbjm]

A surprising amount of science is actually about ego. Scientists are often their own worst enemies.

[@neut9270]

yeah they should be humble like those big wig politicians and high ranking military they refused to bend over to

[@Sevenigma777]

Dude idk how your channel doesn't have a million subs. The production and edits of these last videos have been top notch professional levels. Awesome job man!

[@normtrooper4392]

It's genuinely amazing how much fighting there was over this project when the military budget basically goes up year by year with no complaints. A few billion is a lot, but compared to spending on military projects and the like, it's really tiny

[@baronvonlimbourgh1716]

Yeah, that would have been 400 million a year to build that thing. The millitary spends more then that on airconditioning every year... Shows you where their priorities lie.

[@elijahwaggoner545]

​@baronvonlimbourgh1716 air conditing is a legitimate need for troops stationed in shit climates. Military budget getting wasted is more in the hands of defence contractors getting ridiculous contracts with the Military

[@thatonejoey1847]

@@baronvonlimbourgh1716 you know free trade is essentially upheld by the US alone? After ww2 with france and England becoming broke, they couldn't have a massive navy patrolling the seas to prevent piracy, the loss of their empires solidified that fact. The US either foot the bill or international trade would be put in danger by pirates

[@kw9849]

​@@thatonejoey1847...are you suggesting that the US Navy is somehow responsible for deterring every single pirate on the planet from going after shipping?

[@thatonejoey1847]

@@kw9849 they are doing the majority of the heavy lifting since the royal navy and marine natione permanently downsized after ww2 and no one really stepped up to help after

[@Strothy2]

I can't say how much I've waited for more of this one...!!! Thank you for all your hard work making these!

[@KsThe20]

You have an awesome talent of turning topics that can be considered dull into exciting documentaries! Can't wait for part 3!

[@inkdragon3455]

Can I just say, I love your animation style. Its so easy to follow and track

[@lowstrife]

Music, animation, narration, documentation, research... You have it all dude. I know other people are also showering you with love - but it's so clear the effort you put into these documentaries. It's so far above and beyond the quality of 95% of the documentaries you'd see in any other medium. Keep up the good work.

[@nathanscore]

i don't think i get as excited for any other youtubers' videos as for yours. my day is now so much better. thanks for your hard work

[@JeremieBPCreation]

Outstanding content as usual! Is there a sources document or something like that? The topics are such in nature and approached in such an objective way that it's the first time I think of asking for sources but I think it's important. I try to encourage and prioritize information outlets that provide sources when possible. :)

[@BobbyBroccoli]

The primary source on all things SSC is the book "Tunnel Visions", which I used as a blueprint to map out the series. Many of the quotes are taken from that book, which used primary interviews and are sourced very extensively. Stuff involving budgets and congress I accessed from the official government websites, including votes on bills and amendments, and inflation calculations were done by myself using an online tool. There are a bunch of other documents I read through such as "The Global Research and Development Landscape and Implications for the Department of Defense", "A TIMELINE OF MAJOR PARTICLE ACCELERATORS", "United States nuclear forces, 2019", "High Energy Physics Advisory Panel's Subpanel on Vision for the Future of High-Energy Physics May 1994", "The Intellectual Spoils of War? Defense R&D, Productivity and International Spillovers", "Accessory to War by Neil DeGrasse Tyson", "The Mission by David W Brown", "The God Particle by Leon Lederman".

[@JeremieBPCreation]

​@@BobbyBroccoli Thank you very much for the info! Not that I feel the need to check your sources. I just feel making sources as clear and accessible as possible raises the quality of content. I like Kurzgesagt's way of doing it with a "Sources & further reading:" followed by a single link to a google doc as not to clutter the description. :)

[@anothermicrobe755]

@@BobbyBroccoli I would love to see a sources document appended to videos in the future! These always make me want to read up more in my own time, and it would also be a good way to increase reliability my making fact-checking and further research easier :)

[@Endeva09]

This is the best channel I've discovered since Lemmino 3 years ago, keep it up, excellent stuff.

[@khashayarr]

I'm back for my second watch! Honestly the docs you make are dense enough to have incredible re-watch value! Catch me watching the Nobel fraud trilogy again while I wait for part 3 to drop

[@Hainbach]

Saving this for the trainride tomorrow. Riveting stuff!

[@feelingevaporated2912]

Two of my favourite KZbinrs!

[@illuminutter8757]

I just came across your channel and I am absolutely blown away! These first two parts are among the most enjoyable videos I’ve watched. Great work and I can’t wait for the third : )

[@arailway8809]

Hi Bobby, I am only 26 minutes in and am very impressed by your knowledge of the supercollider. My sister, the rocket scientist, lived within a football field of the main campus. Danny Doggett and James Wells, my old bosses, worked on tunnel layout. We all thought it was the big, new deal, then the whole thing died, leaving behind some big computers, and we all went to other jobs.

[@Cassandria]

please call the first chapter in the next part “Physics in the Clinton Years” PLEASE

[@amesstarline5482]

Ah yes. PITCY.

[@Cassandria]

@@amesstarline5482 it’s good for your spleen

[@Professor_Mitchell]

I like the cut of your jib.

[@Elijah_Kujo]

I want the weird opening's leitmotif in the distance as he says it too

[@Cassandria]

@@Elijah_Kujo YES PLEASE Do do doo… do doo doo dodadoo do doo

[@terrip3223]

dude i was waiting for this, you make me excited about topics I would never even think about, thank you!!

[@haryman222]

Between your amazing animation and fantastic scripting/voice over, you've quickly become one of my new favorite video essayists

[@DuhDawg]

awesome content man very informative and engaging, and i really like the visual style that you chose to display the timeline, it really helps to visualize just how convoluted the whole situation really was.

[@jmv333]

George Bush's vomit is one of my fave fun facts of all time, I am so excited to see a 70 min documentary about how it ties in the the SSC oml I love your stuff!!!!

[@Rekowcski]

these videos are iconic and amazing, well done im so envious of your skills and quality! i love physics, and it's hard to find people who really know how to research, and also know how to engage an audience x

[@StewV]

yo these videos are insanely good i know your going to blow up keep it up

[@Roozyj]

Dude, after randomly getting recommended the video about the fake elements, I've been low key binging your docus. They are so interesting and engaging!

[@skydivertyler]

These are one of those videos that doesn’t seem like an hour long… you can make bureaucracy **entertaining** for Pete’s sake. Super stoked to hear that there’s a THIRD part to this in the works

[@scottygordon3280]

I was looking forward to this video more than any other, and I was not disappointed. Such amazing work. Although I do have to correct you on your statement that Ross Perot got the highest vote share of any third party candidate in presidential history. He got the highest vote share of any independent, but Theodore Roosevelt won 27.4% of the vote for the Progressive "Bull Moose" Party in the 1912 election.

[@ivolol]

I think you have a natural flair for documentary making / story telling, these are so good. I would love to see what you + an extra animator / collaborator could do.

[@anotherriddle]

Great research and presentation! I knew about some bits and pieces, mainly from the physicists perspective, but this is really interesting seeing so much behind the scenes. Great job!

[@sala1718]

The blend of technical knowledge and visual effects is incredible. Keep it up.

[@vidhutripathi5368]

Dude this channel is so underrated, it’s almost criminal. Keep up the great work . Loved the documentary. Please make more on science 🤩

[@rbtmckone1]

I cannot wait to see this channel blow up even more! Loving the work bro!!!

[@painhammerrocketfist]

i am so thoroughly in love with the visuals for your videos, they make following these hugely complex lord-of-the-rings-trilogy length sagas so easy it feels instinctual

[@bigolnerd]

I think that was the calmest anyone has ever said the Soviet Union collapsed.

[@tituslafrombois1164]

Living so near Waxahachie my entire life, every time I heard you pronounce it "whacks a hachie" I was filled with indescribable rage. It's "walks a hachie."

[@JessicaEpperson]

The video editing is phenomenal and the storytelling is gripping! Amazing work

[@teddyfurstman1997]

These Science Politics videos are amazing! Your Quality video editing skills are in instant Sub.

[@manumemanu]

Another amazing high-quality documentary. I am completely fascinated by the level of detail you bring. I went from angry to laughing hysterically all the time watching this. The sheer amount of clusterfuckery is incredible and I cannot believe these people were responsible for such huge projects. Super excited for part 3! (Also, in some instances, your voice sounds very similar to my partner's, so that made the experience particularly pleasant for me.)

[@imacanoli897]

As a north eastern Illinoisan, Fermilab losing out was very disappointing :( But these details were incredibly eye opening. Thank you for this video!

[@lenalongbottom80]

Just wanna say I'm new here and I absolutely adore the visuals you use, your cadence, your voice, the script, the content... Thank you for putting what I'm sure is a TON OF WORK into this kind of video. I've learned so much and I'm probably gonna rewatch all of these once I finish the three parts

[@DatBoiVLC]

I start grooving every time the vaporwave gets louder at the start of a new part. Not because of the music, but because the editing and presentation is such a vibe I'm pumped for the next part of the story.

[@cfytcf]

One of the most captivating science documentaries I've seen in a long time. Thank you for making it.

[@dsmillusion]

Excellently done as usual, a masterclass of video essays.

[@jakevencil7950]

Underrated video, well done man look to see your channel grow in the coming years

[@abirneji]

wow hold up this channel is a lot smaller than I expected considering the level of quality I just saw considering it was recommended to me though, I suppose you're about to explode real soon your graphical representation of quarks and leptons was amazing and really helped me understand more about the types, the usual grid style doesn't put it together as well as you did in the first part

[@herobrine8763og]

I’m learning about the HoC and Senate in politics, and this video helped me so much for preparing for my tests!

[@CinnamonKilljoy]

It's astounding I get to watch this for free. Lovely work, I hear about things in detail I would never even be aware of.

[@tamlin3378]

Extremely well done videos here, I had always heard about the SSC but getting this much detail is amazing, can't wait for more!

[@adrian_hook]

Just watched this whole video unaware that it was part 2/3. Still enjoyed it nonetheless! This is the first video I've seen of yours and I must say the editing format is one of the best I've ever seen ; ___ ;

[@nogaaaaaa]

I've been binging your videos and I'm enjoying them thoroughly! I have no background in physics and you still made the intricacies of high physics an intriguing plot to follow. Is there a way to support the channel? I adore your work.

[@BobbyBroccoli]

Thank you so much! I have a Patreon linked in the description

[@Sunsetradi0]

KZbin randomly recommended this to me, I read the title and I thought it was some weird conspiracy theory or some alternative reality thing, I realized it was about physics and I stayed for that reason, it's a super interesting story Your animations are amazing

[@alligatorghost]

these videos are becoming weekly watches for me, i always forget /something/ and it's a great rewatch. can't wait for the 3rd part.

[@blueguy5588]

This is an absolutely fantastic channel, and I get to learn a ton about particle physics! Thank you.

[@amgoober93]

Homie knows all of this crazy physics shit, modeling, writing and he has this amazing understanding of visual design? The twist that the mountains were the military budget kinda blew my mind and I commend this creative poster board style presentation.

[@MlaskiMlask]

I'm an engineer that is working in a company with many physicists in our R&D, and I must say, that the frictions that you've described between engineers and physicists sounds pretty familiar!

[@CharlieG.]

New subscriber, i ran into this documantary on my feed, im glad i did! Love this one and i will soon look at others! KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK!

[@als6391]

Man that was good. So niche, so specific, and yet so incredibly engaging. One of the best series of videos I have ever watched on this website, thank you for the time and effort you put into it, it really shows.

[@MoonlitWood]

"OK shithead" caught me off guard, felt like I got slapped in the face.

[@disneybunny45]

I never knew that the US had any particle acceleratory, let alone the opportunity to build the largest one! These videos are super informative.

[@burger-jd8cx]

We have a couple hundred thousand of them

[@Tom_Bee_]

I love your style, mister physics narrator. I'm totally subscribed now for more excellent content in my feed! Thanks for all your efforts and here's hoping your channel BLOWS UP!!

[@brendenrussell9029]

I've commented previously on how I love your videos but I didn't mention this: I just love hearing you talk. Please do this forever.