What's between CERN and U.S. Science?

2:31 μ.μ. scienceddicted 2 Comments


We may all know about CERN -well most of us, but have you ever wonder how is possible for a Europoean Organization not only to become independent but also to overcome U.S. Science? Actually the answer is hidden behind the protagonists of the whole story, so lets take a closer look at them before examining the facts.


Isidor I. Rabi was an American, Nobel laureate physicist and the main actor in the story. On 7 June 1950 in consultation with the State Department  he suggested to UNESCO "to assist and encourage the formation and organization of regional research centers and laboratories.."and of course such a center could be located in Western Europe. Also in this consultation was made the first suggestion about the facilities of accelerator-based physics, only if Europe could collect the necessary resources.Europe suddenly seemed to be "up and in" scientifically.

Lee Kowarski as a member of CEA's Scientific Services approached Robert J. Oppenheimer who considered the European research center as something feasible.At this point it is worth mentioning that Oppenheimer was the chairman of the General Advisory Committee to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commision, and Rabi was one of its distinguished members.Oppenheimer suggested that US could help Europe by building an accelerator and providing Uranium metal for a reactor. Now despite the fact that all of them thought it might be possible to establish such a center, there is one common denominator in Rabi's, Kowarski's and Oppenheimer's past: they worked on the Manhattan Project and as it they fear the possibility of creating a reactor which could be used as a nucler weapon in the future. Little Boy and Fat Man were a good instance for them i guess...

Joliot F. Curie was another problem for CERN's erection. Since he was an outspoken pro-Soviet, the fact that in 1945 he became the head of CEA was something that US definitely didn't like. Specifically the United Stetes made clear that will not help France unless Curie leaves CEA. Of course in April 1950 French goverment relieved Curie of his office. In the meantime Rabi wanted West Germany to be included in the research center but the country was still not permitted to do "apllied nuclear research" after the WWII's facts. Rabi insisted in Germany's participation cause he believed that German science should be reconstructed and then will play a key role to European's scientific community. Moreover he thought that is impossible for Germans to reorient the project they would do in research center to military objectives because they would work as a team to an unclassified research.

So what was really Rabi trying to do? He knew very well from his past experience at Manhattan Project that United States use to follow an hegemonic policy and that's something that could be easily happen to CERN's establishment too.So he wanted to assist and ensure European initiative against USA by complement each other, and avoid the possibility of US to dominate EU. His strongest argument was that if America would help financially Europe, then automatically ensures that Europe would not fall under Soviet control. The true is that American hegemony is too strong to be controlled by a just smart diplomacy. As expected US dominated somehow to EU since America was the one who decided when to help France (by relieving Curie of CEA), and also was the one who gave the green light to German for being a CERN's member. Of course the fact that most of CERN's story protagonists were also participants of Manhattan's Project was a crucial factor and maybe the most important reason why CERN never used any research for military purposes. In conclusion, although America formed the basis of CERN's science policy, Europe was the one who developed the already existed institutions  of Basic Science and prepared the ground for a significant restructuring of Applied Science too.



2 σχόλια:

Εγγραφή σε: Σχόλια ανάρτησης (Atom)