There is a question almost always asked when talking about science - “OK, this is interesting. But is it useful for something?” Not too many scientists working on basic science are good at answering this question. “Dr. Masatoshi Koshiba sometimes says that the neutrino, his main research subject, is not useful at all. Well, a Nobel laureate could say that, but not us. I try to talk more about useful accelerators these days,” said Atsuto Suzuki, the Director General of KEK, at a symposium held in Kyoto, Japan, in November, which was organised by the Advanced Accelerator Association promoting science and technology (AAA).