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I am a particle physicist and would like to say that Fermilab (where I'm working on one of the experiments there) and CERN don't compete. One of the best exampl
by NmAmDa 5y ago
I am a particle physicist and would like to say that Fermilab (where I'm working on one of the experiments there) and CERN don't compete. One of the best examples is the construction of DUNE which is a new experiment which will be the largest neutrino experiment so far is done between CERN and fermilab closely. The prototype is even there. Fermilab main focus is different a little bit from CERN. Also Fermilab is part of every CERN collaboration (except maybe small experiments here or there). Usually in particle physic we tend to confirm results with different experiments and sometimes different techniques and because of the nature of statistics and probabilities involved, this always encouraged collaboration and people trying to help each other. I understand that this is completely different from the competition in other fields.
- azalemeth 5y agoExactly -- and that's the point I was trying to make about competition. Fermilab arguably is CERN's biggest "competitor" and it's entirely complementary – e.g. look at the work done with LEP and Tevatron. In contrast, I've had other academics politely ask me not to present my work at a particular conference because so-and-so might be there and that might mean that they'd see it and their paper on x+∂x might come out before our paper on x-∂x, and that would make it harder to get into a particular journal, etc --- and I didn't. It's pretty stupid really. I wish we'd pool resources sensibly, and divide the big ideas ahead of time.