High altitude laboratories

NOV 01, 1950

Physicists and other scientists have found high altitude research laboratories enormously useful as a base of operations for scientific studies that are not normally possible at lower levels. Dr. Korff’s article surveys both the existing stations located at 5,000 feet or above and the as yet unexploited sites where high altitude laboratories of the future might profitably be established.

DOI: 10.1063/1.3066683

Serge A. Korff

Science has always been international, and where it has flourished it has been nurtured by the contributions of men from all nations. High altitude laboratories similarly are especially beneficial if they are organized on an international basis. High altitude laboratories can serve the scientific community in many ways. Properly set up, they can be helpful in reaching the ultimate objectives of science, the ascertaining of new facts and the better understanding of the way nature operates. We shall in this article discuss those high altitude laboratories which are in the free world, and to which visiting scientists are welcomed. Information about the laboratories in the totalitarian nations is not publicly available, and since access to them is impossible, it would serve no useful purpose to describe them.

More about the Authors

Serge A. Korff. NYU.