1071 



U.S. Participation at CERN 



A Model for International 



Cooperation in Science 



and Technology 



Clemens A. Heiisch 



INTRODUCTION 



On the slightly sloping plains between the southwest end ot Lake 

 Geneva and the steep southern Hank oi the Jura Mountains, a vast 

 complex ot architecturally contused and contusing surface structures 

 makes up that part ot the European Laboratory tor Particle Physics 

 that is visible to the casual visitor. A tightly interlaced network ot 

 beam tunnels and accelerating and detection equipment is almost en- 

 tirely hidden trom view, much of it subterranean, all o\ it fed from one 

 initial source of positively charged hydrogen. nuclei ("protons"), all of 

 it masterminded by one precisely linked network of computers. The 

 protons, on their way from initial liberation out of a hydrogen plasma 

 to eventual collision with a stationary target at an energy equivalent to 

 500 times their mass, or to final annihilation upon encountering head- 

 to-head an antiparticle of equal but opposite momentum, will pass the 

 border between French and Swiss territory some 100,000 times. This is 

 the border across which Voltaire withdrew when his free-thinking 

 ways made him suspect to the rightist French monarchical establish- 

 ment, the border which has guarded covetously held freedoms and 

 prejudices between different political and economic systems over cen- 

 turies. For the 10" protons contained in every burst of accelerated 

 beam, and tor the 6,000 scientists, engineers, technicians, and support 

 personnel implementing a large number of research projects on this 

 site, the frontier does not exist— even while customs officials ferret 



125 



