Robert Rathbu (Bob) Wilson asks Congress for $250 million in funding for the most ambitious particle accelerator project ever attempted at the time: the future FermiLab. Wilson is asked whether the project would be of any use to national security, but Wilson responds in the negative. When the senator persists, Wilson replies that the accelerator will have no practical use. Then, looking at the senator, he says that it has to do with the respect we have for one another, the dignity of people and our civilization, our love of culture—it has to do with everything we revere in this country and are proud of; it has absolutely nothing to do with how to defend this country, but everything to do with making it worthy of being defended. The budget is approved. In October of the same year, Wilson himself presides over the groundbreaking ceremony, just outside Chicago. It will have a gigantic cathedral-like building, almost one hundred meters tall, and a main acceleration ring 1 km in diameter, generating 500 GeV. One of the first to lead the experiments will be the American physicist (of Ukrainian Jewish origins) from Columbia University, Leon Lederman.
