entirely new scale. We have the new phenomenon 

 loosely known as "big science," that is, pure 

 science carried on with complex and expensive 

 equipment, and with a large supporting tech- 

 nological effort. In order of cost, the most 

 important examples of such big science are space 

 sciences, high-energy physics, oceanography, 

 radio astronomy, and optical astronomy. 



This study has extended that definition in two ways. First, it has 

 been extended to include other areas of science that involve large 

 instruments and facilities that fall within the $25 million criterion 

 noted above. Thus, to the above list are added here nuclear physics, 

 fusion, materials science and engineering, atmospheric science, aero- 

 nautics, and superconducters used for scientific research. Second, 

 this study also includes in its inventory "big engineering science" 

 facilities, which fall outside of the "pure science" definition of 

 big science noted above. Also, brief discussions are included of 

 antarctic research, because of its relationship to big science in 

 some respects, and biotechnology, because of its potential to develop 

 large facilities in the future. 



Thus, Che following chapters will deal with, respectively, high- 

 energy and nuclear physics, fusion, materials science and engineer- 

 ing, astronomy, atmospheric and oceanographic science, space, aero- 

 nautics, supercomputers, engineering science, antarctic research, 

 and biotechnology. Following the body of the report are appendices 

 that briefly described each U.S. and foreign big science facility 

 which has been identified in this study. In some instances, it has 

 not been possible to obtain all the data requested by the committee 

 for some of the facilities in time to meet the publication date. 

 This is particularly true of information about construction dates and 

 costs of foreign high-energy and nuclear physics facilities. All 

 data in this report are from unclassified sources. Omissions may 

 exist because of U.S. and foreign national security considerations. 



Modes of international cooperation are discussed individually 

 for each big science facility where the information is available 

 from the survey carried out by the Congressional Research Service. 

 In addition, the following chapters briefly discuss international 

 cooperation in each area of big science. The extent of international 

 cooperation in big science depends on the balancing of "opportunities 

 and benefits" versus "difficulties and costs." This varies, of 

 course, from area to area of big science and from facility to faci- 

 lity within each specific area of big science. These major factors 

 have been defined as follows: 3/ 



3/ Rycroft, Robert W. International Cooperation in Science 

 Policy: The U.S. Role in Macropro j ec ts . Technology in Society, v. 5, 

 1983. p. 51-68. (Also published as International Cooperation in 



