The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle accelerator operating at CERN, is probably the most complex and ambitious scientific project ever accomplished by humanity. The sheer size of the enterprise, in terms of financial and human resources, naturally raises the question whether society should support such costly basic-research programs. I address this question by first reviewing the process that led to the emergence of Big Science and the role of large projects in the development of science and technology. I then compare the methodologies of Small and Big Science, emphasizing their mutual linkage. Finally, after examining the cost of Big Science projects, I highlight several general aspects of their beneficial implications for society.
...More
Book
Alvarez-Gaumé, Luis;
Mangano, Michelangelo L.;
Tsesmelis, Emmanuel;
(2012)
From the PS to the LHC---50 Years of Nobel Memories in High-Energy Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001213214/)
Article
Courvoisier, Nelly;
Clémence, Alain;
Green, Eva G. T.;
(2012)
Man-Made Black Holes and Big Bangs: Diffusion and Integration of Scientific Information into Everyday Thinking
(/isis/citation/CBB001252487/)
Book
Don Lincoln;
(2014)
The Large Hadron Collider: The Extraordinary Story of the Higgs Boson and Other Stuff That Will Blow Your Mind
(/isis/citation/CBB162327773/)
Article
Crease, Robert P.;
(2009)
The National Synchrotron Light Source, Part II: The Bakeout
(/isis/citation/CBB000932046/)
Book
Liyanage, Shantha;
Wink, Rüdiger;
Nordberg, M.;
(2007)
Managing Path-Breaking Innovations: CERN-ATLAS, Airbus, and Stem Cell Research
(/isis/citation/CBB000950885/)
Article
Wang, Xiaoyi;
Bai, Xin;
(2011)
The Proposal and Decision to Build the Beijing Electron Positron Collider
(/isis/citation/CBB001221349/)
Article
Crease, Robert P.;
(2008)
The National Synchrotron Light Source, Part I: Bright Idea
(/isis/citation/CBB000932042/)
Article
Westfall, Catherine;
(2010)
Surviving to Tell the Tale: Argonne's Intense Pulsed Neutron Source from an Ecosystem Perspective
(/isis/citation/CBB001022610/)
Article
Crease, Robert P.;
(2008)
Recombinant Science: The Birth of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC)
(/isis/citation/CBB000950435/)
Article
Stevens, Hallam;
(2003)
Fundamental Physics and Its Justifications, 1945-1993
(/isis/citation/CBB000700634/)
Article
Thomas Heinze;
Olof Hallonsten;
(2017)
The reinvention of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 1992–2012
(/isis/citation/CBB100710470/)
Book
Fraser, Gordon;
(1998)
The Particle Century
(/isis/citation/CBB000110625/)
Book
Doing, Park;
(2009)
Velvet Revolution at the Synchrotron: Biology, Physics, and Change in Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000952121/)
Article
Crease, Robert P.;
(2005)
Quenched! The ISABELLE Saga
(/isis/citation/CBB000641838/)
Article
Paul, Eward;
(2013)
50 Years of Experimental Particle Physics in Bonn. A Personal Recollection
(/isis/citation/CBB001320784/)
Book
Sample, Ian;
(2010)
Massive: The Missing Particle That Sparked the Greatest Hunt in Science
(/isis/citation/CBB001023169/)
Book
Olof Hallonsten;
(2012)
In pursuit of a promise: Perspectives on the political process to establish the European Spallation Source (ESS) in Lund, Sweden
(/isis/citation/CBB669404244/)
Article
Hinokawa, Shizue;
(2006)
Cyclotron Development in the 1930s---The Origin of Big Science
(/isis/citation/CBB000630947/)
Chapter
Hoffmann, Hans Falk;
(2012)
The Role of Open and Global Communication in Particle Physics
(/isis/citation/CBB001422699/)
Article
Krige, John;
(2001)
Distrust and Discovery: The Case of the Heavy Bosons at CERN
(/isis/citation/CBB000671240/)
Be the first to comment!