鈥淭he most powerful atomic accelerator in the world was formally inaugurated at Meyrin, on the outskirts of Geneva, last Friday.鈥� Those words, in our edition of 11 February 1960, ushered in the work of CERN鈥檚 proton synchrotron 鈥� 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.
鈥淧resent-day atom-smashing machinery is very expensive,鈥� our editorial ran, 鈥渁nd 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.鈥�
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At the time, we dubbed CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, 鈥渙ne of the greatest international ventures in pure science鈥�. 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.
The magnetic ring that guides the synchrotron鈥檚 particles has a diameter of 200 metres. Its field strength increases synchronously as the particles within it pick up speed, so that they are always held in a circle of the same diameter. The machine is sensitive: the pull of the moon on the waters of Lake Geneva affects its readings. The synchrotron was CERN鈥檚 largest accelerator until new ones were built in the 1970s.
In 1983, the proton synchrotron was involved in the detection of W and Z particles: entities predicted by a model that unified the fundamental weak and electromagnetic forces. This was a huge step towards a unified theory of the physical universe. In order for this unification to make mathematical sense, a new particle called the Higgs had to exist.
Over 25 years were then spent trying to build particle accelerators with the energy necessary to produce a Higgs particle. CERN鈥檚 Large Hadron Collider, a 27-kilometre-long ring buried up to 175 metres under the Swiss-French border, began work on 10 September 2008. By July 2012, it was generating observable Higgs-like particles. Not a bad confirmation of 鈥渢he value of collective effort and of the solidarity of mankind鈥�, as we put it at the time.
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