Comment by xvector

This sounds quite frustrating. I'm not in particle physics, I'm just a lowly SWE, but my workplace doesn't have a problem with me burning $30k of tokens on some one off idea.

Why did CERN require so much selectivity? Was it a lack of funding? Are particle collisions particularly expensive? Are you competing for "collider time"? I am curious what the limiting factor was.

I think I would lose my mind if I needed hundreds of collaborators to support an experiment.