American Institute of Physics. Center for History of Physics. Study of Multi-Institutional Collaborations. Phase III: Ground-Based Astronomy, Materials Science, Heavy-Ion and Nuclear Physics, Medical Physics, and Computer-Mediated Collaborations.

A documentation research project to study the complex issues facing the historical documentation of multi-institutional collaborations in physics and allied sciences. Phase III focused on four disciplinary areas of ground-based astronomy, materials science, heavy-ion physics, and medical physics, and a category named computer-mediated collaborations. BNL 878 and 896 are a collaboration of a nucleus of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, the University of California at Berkeley, the University of California at Los Angeles, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Johns Hopkins University, Goddard Space Flight Center, the University of Michigan, and Yale. The collaboration has performed a series of experiments using Brookhaven's heavy-ion beam to investigate matter built up from strange quarks. 878 was preceded by 858, which had fewer members. Also participating in 878, but not 896 were Columbia, the University of Tokyo, and Waseda University (Japan). Also participating in 896 but not 878 were Carnegie Mellon, the University of Catania (Italy), CERN, McGill, Ohio State, Rice, the University of Texas at Austin, and Wayne State. Funding began in 1988, and the collaboration is still in operation.