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U.S. PARTICIPATION AT CERN 129 



LEP, people will fly in for shifts arranged months ahead of time, from 

 home bases hundreds or thousands of miles away. AtCalTech, prepara- 

 tion of an experiment took from 3 months to a year; at LEP, the 

 minimum time deemed reasonable for full preparation of a major experi- 

 ment is approximately 6 years. At CalTech, funding for the individual 

 experiments was informally arranged within the laboratory and almost 

 automatically subscribed by the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission 

 (which at that time funded about 90 percent of particle physics research 

 in the United States); at LEP it takes deliberations involving represen- 

 tatives of 12 national governments to finance any of the four ex- 

 periments. Across the changes illustrated by the two examples given, 

 these changing features as well as those that have remained constant 

 make up the very special features of particle physics that make it a 

 natural for international collaboration: 



• The problems pursued are of a truly fundamental nature. There is 

 no dissension concerning the basic importance of our understanding of 

 the most elementary constituents and forces of nature. The field is not 

 subject to scientific or cultural or economic "fashion." 



• The aims of particle physics are deeply cultural. They are, as of 

 themselves, remote from the interests of military use or economic gain. 

 This is not to say that secondary effects may not be interesting to both of 

 these pursuits, but the second of the shaping events mentioned above 

 has engendered a strong tradition among scientists that keeps them well 

 separated from all military or even traditional commercial interests. 



• Fundamentality as well as remoteness from competitive power 

 structures permits and encourages openness. All research done at all 

 high-energy particle accelerators the world over is unclassified, readily 

 published, easily communicated among colleagues, and accessible to all 

 interested. 



• Easy communication encourages competitiveness on an interna- 

 tional basis: new theories or speculatrons that suggest novel experiments 

 are immediately known worldwide. Many scientists may wish to pursue 

 an almost identical problem, maybe even with almost identical means. 



• Undeniably, there is a prestige or "flagship" aspect to the support of 

 elementary particle physics. All great cultural and economic powers 

 support this field despite its remoteness from practical use and 

 notwithstanding the very considerable economic means needed. 

 Sometimes, this happens in the face of dire demands from other national 

 needs that may appear much more pressing— the recent Chinese efforts 

 to establish a new accelerator laboratory, initiated by Chou En-lai and 

 emphasized by his successors, may serve as an example. 



