Of higher symmetries

During the past year the in‐trays of elementaryparticle physicists have been brightened by a new type of preprint cover, the cool blue and white of the International Center for Theoretical Physics at Trieste. The preprints inside have been remarkable for their number, their interest, and the diversity both of their subjects and the home countries of their authors. A truly international institute, drawing postdoctoral workers from every continent, has come into being and has enjoyed a remarkable first year of fruitful activity. This activity reached an appropriate climax in the Seminar on High‐Energy Physics and Elementary Particles, held during the months of May and June, 1965, just three years after the first such seminar, held in Trieste in 1962, under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency. The 160 participants came from 29 different countries and the two‐month seminar provided a unique and valuable opportunity for survey in depth and continued discussion of all the most important aspects of the subject. Such a period of sustained communal activity provides an altogether different experience from the fleeting contacts possible at conventional short conferences. It constitutes an opportunity for the physicist from a developing country to make lasting contacts with workers from all over the world. However, it is equally welcome to all physicists since the complexities of modern problems demand a time scale of weeks rather than days for their discussion.