1/ After the collapse of the Soviet Union, we worried about their nuclear physicists helping create weapons of mass destruction elsewhere
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015
2/ but a less heralded and possibly more destructive migration happened in the US around the same time, when Congress cancelled the SSC
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015
3/ The SSC (Superconducting Super Collider) was meant to be the future of physics but after budget overruns was cancelled in 1993
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015
4/ Many of the physicists in grad school who were training to work on the SSC went to Wall Street instead to work as "quants", a new field
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015
5/ Those quants created the algorithmic trading & incredibly complex derivatives that eventually led to 2008 crash
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015
6/ Here's a book on that migration: http://t.co/wAHa9YfnHu
— Chris Anderson (@chr1sa) September 5, 2015