Fine Structure

Here's a hierarchy of collider informedness, from most to least informed:

• People who hear about colliders when someone discusses what might be useful to build
• People who hear about colliders when someone decides what to build
• People who hear about colliders as it's being built
• People who hear about colliders in close proximity to first beam
• People who hear about colliders after something new is discovered

Even non-professionals who consider themselves scientifically informed might miss the first or even the first two steps. Today this is not true! An article on symmetry breaking describes some of the process currently going on to decide whether we should build a photon-photon collider at significantly less cost and energy or simply climb the energy ladder and build the more impressive and costly International Linear Collider. This is really good science writing.
http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/breaking/2008/11/05/should-a-photon-photon-collider-precede-the-ilc/