Did you know that the digital cameras that are now everywhere came out of that self same research that you are saying is a waste of money? Actually the project to which you are referring is at CERN which is outside Geneva, and is sponsored by the USA and many other countries.
For what its worth the wars in Iraq and Afganistan cost orders of magnitude more than everything being done at CERN, and every other physics lab in the world.
As for the Higgs boson, which is sometimes called “The God Particle”, the reason its called that was some one was talking about how hard it is to find, and when he was quoted an expletive was dropped out.