Daniel Kevles describes succintly physics's progress in the 20th century ("The particle's over", THES Millennium Magazine, December 24/31, 1999). In particle physics we are addressing a fundamental question - why we have mass. The cancellation of the superconducting supercollider was not the end of particle physics. It led to a world effort on constructing the large hadron collider at CERN, the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Geneva: reports of the death of particle physics are somewhat premature.
Roger Cashmore CERN, Geneva