Title:Why are we boiling the vacuum; a historical perspective

Speaker: Wit Busza (MIT)

Abstract: Today the study of the collision of ultra relativistic protons and nuclei with nuclear targets is a very large and active research field. The evolution of the interest in such studies has a fascinating history. In my talk I will discuss how the reason for such studies or, in other words, how “the question of interest” of the field has changed with time. The focus will be on the interplay of technology, experiment, theory and sociology in the development of the field.