ABSTRACT
Starting in the 1930s, with the development of cyclotrons, betatrons, synchrotrons, and a bevy of other machines with names mostly ending in "-tron," atomic physics metamorphosed into high-energy physics and became big science. Big science is not really a product of the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century, astronomical observatories were already big science, in the same sense that President Donald Kennedy employs the term. Philip Anderson argues that the government favors big science because it provides neat packages that administrators in the science funding agencies can manage readily and because it provides porkbarrel opportunities for Congress. While looking at the budget figures gives an overall picture of the impact of big science, a look at the level of funding for some individual scientific disciplines is also informative. Philip Anderson, winner of the Nobel Prize for physics in 1977, gives one illustration of how big science compresses little science.
