Crease and Westfall reply: The fact is that the largest projects at the US national laboratories are now devoted to materials science rather than high-energy physics. That development has been accompanied by important changes in research and the research culture at the labs, which we characterize by coining the phrase the New Big Science. (“Isn’t what it used to be” was added by the editors.) We believe it is important to understand the changes. We leave it to others to explore the course of Big Science outside the US and how large astronomical projects fit into the mix; we deliberately refrained from discussing those topics in our article.
More about the Authors
Robert P. Crease.
(robert.crease@stonybrook.edu) Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York.
Catherine Westfall.
Michigan State University, East Lansing.
The Week in Physics" is likely a reference to the regular updates or summaries of new physics research, such as those found in publications like Physics Today from AIP Publishing or on news aggregators like Phys.org.