Imagine a massive machine that stretches underground from Seoul to well beyond Incheon, forming a circumference of roughly 91 km. That’s the size of the Future Circular Collider (FCC), a particle accelerator scientists at CERN, Europe’s top physics lab, hope to build by 2070.
But why build something so enormous? The answer lies in the tiniest building blocks of our universe. By smashing particles together at incredibly high speeds, scientists hope to uncover some of physics’ long-held mysteries, such as the nature of dark matter. The current most powerful collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), has helped discover the Higgs boson in 2012 but failed to deliver more. With the LHC approaching its end in 2040, researchers have planned for its successor since the 2010s.
The FCC would be more powerful than its predecessor and take science even further. However, it comes with an unbelievable price tag – at least $30 billion (44.1 trillion won) – and a long timeline. Some researchers worry that young scientists starting today might never see the results in their careers. Others think focusing too much money and effort on a single project would leave out other exciting fields, like neutrinos or gravitational waves.
Meanwhile, China is planning its version of a super collider that could be smaller, cheaper, and built much faster – possibly within the next two decades. If approved, it could become the world’s next big physics hub, challenging Europe’s leadership in high-energy science and pushing global competition forward.
Still, many believe that bold projects like this are what science is all about – reaching beyond what we know and daring to explore the unknown. These scientists see the FCC as a path to answers we’ve chased for decades.
The decision on whether to build the machine will shape the future of science and perhaps how far curiosity can take us.