Darnit, WanderingKnight, you beat me to posting the xkcd reference!
That's the FIRST thing I thought of when I was pondering what to post...
It is truly amazing what human beings are able to accomplish without knowing what the HECK we're doing. I really wonder how many engineering breakthroughs were achieved in building this that will inevitably not make news because of the focus on the result.
I confess to kind of hoping that there is a negative result out of sheer curiosity of what the reaction would be in the scientific community and among the public that suddenly wonders about the cost despite a negative result being as useful as a positive (if less satisfying).