_N~_RE_m_u_llls_oc_~>B_ER_I~------CQRRESPQNDENCE------m designed and built the first two colliders for protons, the ISR and the proton­ In defence of CERN antiproton collider in the SPS tunnel. The SIR - May an observer well acquainted towards its present world supremacy, that effect has been to pioneer a new style of with US and European particle physics started long ago. experimentation which has now been taken comment on the report of social scientists The comparison with Fermilab in the up by other centres of particle research all Ben Martin and John Irvine on the achieve­ United States is unfairly presented. True over the world. CERN continues the ments of CERN, the European High enough, several great discoveries were tradition with the large electron-positron Energy Laboratory in Geneva (Nature made at that laboratory, such as the collider LEP. 6 September, p.4)? I find this report existence of a fifth quark. But it was the The Martin-Irvine report does not make unfairly biased against CERN. CERN accelerator that was able to produce much of these achievements and also all but When European high-energy accelerator sharp and intense muon and neutrino ignores the many new ideas for instrument­ research on a large scale began in 1960, beams with which the so-called structure ation spawned at CERN, such as the multi­ CERN was a completely novel social ex­ functions of protons and neutrons were wire proportional chamber and the periment. There was almost no tradition of determined with astounding accuracy. vacuum ultraviolet imaging device. Both "big science" in Europe, and no experience Moreover, the important "EMC-effect" innovations are not only significant of international scientific management. was discovered, which has led to a new view advances in detecting particles, but have Nevertheless, within less than 24 years, of the role of quarks in the atomic nucleus. important applications in medicine and in CERN had developed into the world's One of the main purposes of those other sciences. leading laboratory in this field. accelerators was the production of usable High-energy physics is an international Why then do Martin and Irvine consider secondary muon and neutrino beams, in endeavour, more so than most other CERN's performance disappointing? which CERN was much more successful scientific activities. There is a constant They concentrate their attention on than Fermilab inspite of the latter's four­ exchange of physicists and engineers sensational peak discoveries, in which year lead. Why do Martin and Irvine not between CERN, the United States and respect CERN has contributed only in appreciate these successes? Why do they other countries. It does not make much recent decades. But science does not consist consider them to be dull physics? sense to consider progress in this field as a of discoveries that make headlines in news­ CERN's contributions to the physics of competition between two continents. It is a papers. The bulk of science consists of a nuclear structure are almost completely collective achievement of all participating broad front of painstaking investigations, neglected in Martin and Irvine's report. nations. The CERN effort has contributed leading to ever deeper insights. They are the CERN has the most advanced isotope essential ingredients. Particle physics soil from which striking discoveries can separation device (Isolde) attached to its would not be what it is without CERN's develop. In this respect, CERN has made synchro-cyclotron, where many new impetus, without its technical innovations many contributions to which Martin and unstable nuclei have been discovered and and without its studies and discoveries, Irvine give only passing attention. studied. Recently, a low-energy source for even if some of them have not made news­ It is true that some of the peak dis­ antiprotons was constructed (LEAR) paper headlines. coveries, in particular the so-called c which provides unique opportunities for Last and by no means least, CERN (charm) and b (bottom) quarks, could have the study of antiproton interactions. represents the United States of Europe in been found at the intersecting storage rings The success of CERN is based to a large fundamental physics. It became an active (ISR) at CERN. Other "sensational" dis­ extent upon a circumstance that has been a symbol of the spirit of European unity. coveries, the violation of parity, the surprise for people who have observed the That is no mean achievement. It serves as n-minus and the two types of neutrinos, development of physics in the past half the University of Europe for high-energy which CERN is blamed for missing, were century. The United States was assumed to physics, and brings together the many made in the United States before or at a the superior in engineering and instrument­ individual universities in Europe in time when research had barely started at ation, as demonstrated by the development scientific collaborations of unprecedented CERN. But even if one insists on counting in the 1930s of cyclotrons, synchrotrons, magnitude and complexity often involving the lucky events of that type, CERN did linear accelerators, bubble chambers and also universities and institutes of the not fare so badly during the second half of so on. But the quality of the engineer­ United States, Eastern Europe and Asia. its research period. It discovered a new physicists at CERN turned out to be at least In spite of the obvious difficulties which form of radioactivity, the so-called neutral as high. They succeeded in constructing such international collaborations entail, currents, the well-advertised quanta of the accelerators of unusual reliability and CERN has developed into the foremost weak interaction and probably a sixth flexibility under the leadership of the late high-energy laboratory of the world, as is quark (t, for top) as well. Sir John Adams. Some have ascribed this strikingly confirmed by the recent US panel Martin and Irvine ascribe the latest to over-conservative design, but it helped report on New Facilities for the US High achievements to a recent change of spirit greatly in the exploitation of the machines. Energy Physics Program, in which it was due to the present director. It is true that Thus it allowed the luminosity of the inter­ stated that "the European facilities Herwig Schopper vigorously supported the secting storage rings to reach more than ten frequently provide a better level of support last phases of the conversion of the super times the design value, and it facilitated the and/or a larger number of opportunities proton synchrotron (SPS) as a proton­ production of the intense muon and than the American equivalents". antiproton collider, and the subsequent neutrino beams. Finally, it made possible How can such an institution be given successful research. However, Martin and the fast conversion of the 400 Ge V "Poor Marks for Enterprise"? Irvine do not seem to appreciate that the accelerator into a proton-antiproton VICTOR F. WEISSKOPF conversion of an accelerator and the collider, the success of which hung on one Massachusetts Institute of Technology, preparation of such giant experiments take of the imaginative devices invented and Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA much longer than the three and a half years implemented at CERN by Simon Vander Victor Weisskopf was director of CERN of Schopper's directorship. The daring Meer - the so-called stochastic cooling of from 1961 to 1965. spirit and the technical inventiveness that the antiproton beam, destined to be used in have led to these achievements date from future colliders everywhere in the world. SIR - Robert Walgate's enthusiasm (see much earlier times. They are a proof of the Furthermore, CERN engineer-physicists Nature 6 September, p.4) for the assess­ opportunities given to individual scientists, led by Kjell Johnson constructed the inter­ ment of CERN carried out by two social which Martin and Irvine consider to have secting storage rings at a time when scientists from Sussex, Irvine and Martin, been too restricted at CERN. They also laboratories in the United States did not is misplaced. Most would agree with one show a steady growth of this institution dare to take on this difficult task. CERN conclusion reached by Martin and Irvine, © 1984 Nature Publishing Group