60 years ago, New Scientist celebrated the dawning of a new era for particle physics

摘要

"The most powerful atomic accelerator in the world was formally inaugurated at Meyrin, on the outskirts of Geneva, last Friday." Those words, in our edition of 11 February 1960, ushered in the work of CERN's proton synchrotron - and a mind-bending era of particle physics, fuelled by the ability of vast machines to create, at a tiny scale, the extreme conditions that existed moments after the big bang. "Present-day atom-smashing machinery is very expensive," our editorial ran, "and it is difficult for a small nation to find within its own frontiers sufficient experiments to justify its construction. Now CERN has a membership of thirteen states." At the time, we dubbed CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, "one of the greatest international ventures in pure science". The 60 years since have proved that point. CERN now has the support of 23 member states, and the proton synchrotron is still going, revered as a reliable workhorse. As well as protons, it has accelerated electrons, positrons and antiprotons, as well as helium, oxygen and sulphur nuclei, for ever bigger and stranger experiments.