The Beginnings of Western Science

'What is the basic building block of the universe?' Thales of Miletus was the first to ask this fundamental, yet to be answered, question in the sixth century B.C.

In 1967, France and Germany agreed to cooperate on the construction and commissioning of a nuclear reactor dedicated to research in physics, chemistry and biology. Thus was born the Institut Laue-Langevin, a project whose aim was to provide research scientists with an extremely intense source of neutron beams, a fundamental tool for probing the mysteries of matter. Britain soon joined the project, followed gradually by other countries both from western and eastern Europe, making the Institut Laue-Langevin a particularly successful example of European cooperation. This success is a clear illustration of how, by joining forces and skills in this way, it was possible to provide scientists from “the old continent” with the means to tackle ambitious projects by giving them the best neutron source in the world.