Consider the moons of Jupiter. Galileo's observations of four Jovian moons in 1610 heralded a new age of science, with the birth of modern astronomy. Galileo capitalized on that era's technological advances in lens grinding, leading to the development of the telescope which Galileo did not invent, but which he improved greatly through his own precise and methodical work. Galileo is considered by many to be the founder of modern science, so we can say that from the very beginning scientists used technological advances to break new ground in understanding the fundamentals of nature. Telescopes, microscopes, computers, and, of course, particle accelerators are all technological advances that have pushed science forward, and, in turn, benefited from science, too.
Superconductivity is another such advance.
It's perhaps ironic that superconductivity, which makes possible the modern microscopes of high-energy physics, was discovered in Holland, where the lenses of the 16th century were also developed. Realistically, we couldn't afford any large hadron colliders without superconductivity. Superconducting magnets are less expensive than conventional copper and iron magnets, when their cost is adjusted by their bending capability. The electric bills would be fatal for colliders with conventional electromagnets. Without superconductivity, we would need rings on the Brobdingnagian scale to compensate for the low fields in conventional magnets.