Introduction: Deep Science
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As the miner's headlamp casts light on subterranean darkness, research in deep underground laboratories illuminates many of the most compelling questions in 21st century science. Sheltered by the earth's crust from the background commotion of cosmic rays and human activity, exquisitely sensitive particle physics and astrophysics experiments search for the subtle but unmistakable signatures of a revolutionary new physics of the universe. Biologists probe the secrets of microbial life at extreme depths, in hot, harsh environments sequestered for millennia from the earth's surface. Geoscientists and engineers research the behavior of subsurface rock, minerals, water and energy sources.
A national Deep Science Initiative, structured around a new Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory, would extend the frontiers of particle physics and astrophysics, biology, geoscience and engineering–and foster the synergies among them. This Deep Science Initiative would yield discoveries about the fundamental nature of our own planet, about the life that it harbors and about the universe that is its home. It would contribute strongly to the basic science that is the foundation of the nation's prosperity. It would provide unique opportunities for innovation in underground technology, with immediate and long-term applications for the nation's security and economic well-being. A Deep Science Initiative would address the nation's need to sustain world leadership in fundamental and applied science and to educate, train and inspire the next generation of scientists and engineers.
