Collisions of interest

摘要

The worlds of fundamental, leading-edge particle physics and manufacturing engineering seem at first sight to be far apart - not just technically, but also psychologically. The former may be trying to unravel the secrets of how the universe came into existence, whilst the latter is concerned, ultimately, with earning a living. There is a very good reason why UK engineering companies should have an interest in electrons, positrons and even the hitherto theoretical Higgs boson. To be precise there will be around £35million-worth of reasons in each of the next eight years or around £280mil-lion in total.