ABSTRACT
When in 1953 a European organization for nuclear research (CERN) was founded in order to meet the challenges of Big Science in physics, it quickly became clear that the Swiss city of Geneva was an ideal host. This decision was closely related to an international political and scientific debate about the neutrality of science. 1 The military potentials of mass destruction unleashed by modern biology, chemistry, and especially nuclear physics had brought new fears to the fore, as to who would use scientific insight and to what end. Since the First World War science in all industrialized countries became increasingly linked to national political aims. Concurrently, the complexities of research—again especially in nuclear physics— led to the advent of large experimental cooperation which was impossible to finance for small and middle sized nations alone. And a universalist discourse gained ground after the Second World War that aimed at uniting all scientific endeavors across all nations for the collective good of humanity. 2
