Blazing the Trail to CERN, 1949-54

History of CERN: Vol. 1. Launching the European Organization for Nuclear Research. Armin Hermann, John Knge, Ulnke Mersits and Dominique Pestre. North-Holland, The Netherlands, 1987. Distributed in the United States and Canada by Elsevier Science Publishers, New York. 600 pp. $110. Since World War II, large laboratories have played an increasingly important role in hosting the world's largest and most expensive basic research projects. For example, the mammoth projects in large laboratories have ushered in productive new styles of team research as well as novel problems in organization and science policy. Because of the distinctive features of large-scale science, a growing number of scholars, including John Heilbron, Lillian Hoddeson, Robert Seidel and Allan Needell, have studied the history of major scientific institutions. In addition to individual studies, archival and history projects have been established at such institutions as Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Fermi National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory and CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. This book, the first of a two-volume series, is the initial product of the CERN history team directed by Armin Hermann, professor of history of science and technology at the University of Stuttgart. The volume, which covers the years 1949 to 1954, explores the scientific and cultural environment from which plans for CERN emerged, the founding of the laboratory, and the French, Italian, German and British decisions to join the organization. The authors will explore the first 12 years of CERN in the second volume. A major strength of the book is its detailed attention to the sociological factors involved in science policy decision-making. Instead of providing a simplistic account of how CERN was proposed, the authors carefully trace the course of several independent initiatives, including the particularly influential proposals made by French science administrator Raoul Dautry and American physicist I.I. Rabi. They explain how multiple initiatives were fused without resolving differences between those, such as Dautry, who thought a particle physics program was too narrow, and others, including physicist Hendrick Kramers, who saw such a program as overly ambitious. The authors then describe the crisis caused when Kramers and Niels Bohr proposed, contrary to ongoing plans, that the laboratory be built around the Bohr Institute. Finally, they scrutinize the individual and national considerations that motivated various physicists and science administrators to take the sides they did in the ensuing dispute. This account is followed by detailed description of how conflicts were resolved and the subsequent founding of the laboratory. This is an interesting and thought-provoking volume for anyone concerned with the dynamics of science policy decision-making. The authors constantly challenge us to read between the lines of public statements and dig beneath the standard explanations, worthy tasks for those desiring a deeper understanding of any human activity, including the making of science policy. Some readers may be disappointed, however, that the authors pay such scant attention to how advances in science and technology affected the founding of CERN. Only one of 14 chapters is devoted to the intellectual context that prompted and spurred efforts for this expensive high-energy physics laboratory. Apart from this chapter and discussions on the impact of the discovery of strong focusing on plans for the proton synchrotron, scientific and technical factors are largely ignored. The first volume of the CERN history is well worth reading. It provides a coherent account of the founding of the organization and lends important insight into the economic and political issues that must be faced when research projects grow large and expensive. Westfall is a member of the Los Alamos National Laboratory history team, Los Alamos, NM 87545, which is writing a history of the laboratory during World War II. She is also writing a history of the founding of Fermi National Laboratory.

Blazing the Trail to CERN, 1949-54

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