About CERN
The European Organisation for Nuclear Research, more commonly known as
CERN (from the French title of the original body, ‘Conseil Europeés pour
la recherche nucléairè’) was established in the early 1950s in Geneva. Its
main aim was to provide for collaboration amongst European states in
nuclear research of a purely scientific nature, and it was made very clear
that CERN should have no concern with work for military requirement. In
1953 there were 12 founder members of CERN and it presently has
19 member
states. All the work at CERN is financed by these member states, each
providing financial contributions in proportion to their net national
incomes. Since its establishment, CERN has made many important discoveries,
mainly in particle physics, but it is also at the centre
of many technological advances, the most famous being the
World-Wide Web.