Out in Minnesota scientists have spent $55 million to plug up an old iron mine with a "neutrino detector."  The high-tech device is supposed to catch elementary particles called neutrinos--specifically those created 450 miles away at Fermilab near Chicago and shot through the ground toward Soudan mine.  Other detectors are being built in Antarctica and the Mediterranean, besides ones already in use, such as Japan's Super-Kamiokande detector.

The multi-million dollar price tags on these professional toys (including a $125 million projection tunnel at Fermilab) is enough for us to be able to ask, What do we need to know about neutrinos?  The biggest answers scientists are giving is that our better understanding of neutrinos will influence how we think the early universe formed after the big bang.

But what if I don't believe in the big bang?  What if I'm not an evolutionist?

How much did you say you spent?

Okay, so maybe there are some more practical reasons for learning about neutrinos--electrons, muons, tau particles, and their "flavors"--such as understanding how they interact with gravity and with one another, and whether they really exist in the form we think they do (after all, we can't see them).  I'm all for those.  But I'm not hearing most scientists parading those reasons.  They're all about the creation of the universe and of distant galaxies and solar systems. 

Advice to philanthropists: Check where and why that cash is being sent before donating your next 5 million to "education and research." 
Advice to self: Check where and why that cash is being sent before paying that next 50 bucks.