The short story was included in the collection A View from the Stars published by Head of Zeus in April 2024 and by Tor Books in May 2024.
[1][2] A new particle accelerator able to determine whether quarks can be split has been built in the Gobi Desert.
A local farmer was invited for the first experiment due to providing food and because of not really understanding the experiment carried out, asks why the money was not put into replanting the Gobi Desert as observing increasingly smaller parts of matter will only need more money.
Paul Di Filippo wrote in the Locus Magazine, that "Greg Egan comes to mind in 'End of the Microcosmos', a tale wherein high-energy physics threatens to unravel the fabric of spacetime.
"[3] Publishers Weekly wrote in a review of the entire collection A View from the Stars, that its fiction entries "may be more down-to-earth, but they’re unafraid to ask big questions, including 'What is the purpose of the universe?'.