Mix of physics and politics may produce lab in mine

A century-old gold mine in the town of Lead, South Dakota, would be converted into the world's deepest underground physics laboratory under a bill passed in the Senate last week. The laboratory would cost 281 million dollars to create and up to 1 billion once scientific experiments like a huge neutrino detector are installed. The site would enable scientists to detect neutrinos because it is shielded by 7,400 feet of earth and rock from cosmic rays. However taxpayers, environmentalists and even some scientists still need to be convinced of the worth of the proposed lab.