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Hon. Mr. Fuqua July 18, 1985 



CST Page five 



6. What factors either (a) facilitate or (b) inhibit international 

 cooperation in high energy physics? 



High Energy Physics is particularly apt for international 

 collaboration because of two reasons: 



1. It studies the basic nature of matter at its most fundamental 

 level. This is far removed of any commercial or military use. 

 The only driving force is the human urge to know what makes 

 nature tick. This urge is common to all humans, independent 



of nationality, religion, race or political system. 



2. In spite of the enormous complication and sophistication 

 of the ideas, instruments and tools, the fundamental aim is 

 simple: The study of the interaction of elementary particles 

 by investigating collisions of particles and the resulting 

 radiations. Thus the methods used in the different laboratories 

 are similar. Any innovation spreads raoidly, often by telephone 

 to other labs. This makes for strong links between high 

 energy physicists of the world and facilitates collaboration. 



There is little that would inhibit such cooperation. 

 Sometimes overambitious teams do not want to tell all their 

 findings, fearing that others would overtake them. But such 

 incidents are rare, perhaps rarer than in other fields of 

 science. 



7. What does "world leadership" in high energy physics mean? 

 What particular benefits accrue to the "world leader" 

 versus "number two"? Whv should national policy makers 

 care whether or not the nation is first, second or third 

 in high energy physics research? 



It is not the question of being first or second, a 

 designation which would be hard to define. The important 

 thing is to be actively and successfully involved in this 

 science. In order to reach this, it is necessary to have 

 first rate facilities able to work at the frontier of 

 science. The United States does not need to own facilities 

 at all frontiers but must have them at some frontiers. With 

 the lively exchange of teams, American scientists can work 

 on those frontiers not covered at home, by being guest teams 

 abroad. But if there are no frontier facilities at home, 

 the supply of competent scientists is going to dry out. This 

 is also the reason why the pace of innovation is important. 

 The U.S. already lacks enough frontier facilities. If we 

 wait too long with the next step, we will lose the manpower 

 necessary to continue. A younger student would not enter 

 the field if he has no chance for more than a decade to 

 perform experiments. 



The question may be asked, why the United States need 

 to be actively engaged in this field. Couldn't we profit 

 from the discoveries made abroad without contributing to it? 

 There are reasons why this would be disastrous. If we give 



