The huge and ever-increasing cost of particle accelerators, spacecraft, telescopes and the other tools of modern physics and astronomy means that increasingly even superpowers cannot go it alone in research. Nations have to share the cost of the equipment needed to probe further into the structure of matter and the origin and destiny of the Universe.
British enthusiasm for collaboration, together with the possession of a number of centres of excellence with great traditions of innovation and discovery, has enabled the UK to remain in the forefront of these most fundamental of sciences. In 1996 the UK came second only to the USA in the number of papers published in the field of astronomy. An accepted measure of the importance and quality of research is its citation as a source of background information and data by other, independent scientists. From 1991 to 1996 British authors were cited more frequently by other authors, of all nationalities, than those of any other nation except the USA.
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