Proto-Megascience: Translating interests in a trading zone

This paper focuses on the characteristics of Proto-Megascience, a type of Megascience that emerged in the 1970s. Proto-Megascience originated in high-energy physics at a stage when, with still relatively moderate instrument scales, team sizes, costs and durations, experiments developed such features of advanced Megascience as the degeneration of experiments into chains with similar scientific programs, as well as the equality of epistemic and non-epistemic, in particular political, interests. The author discusses a case study of a series of joint Soviet-American accelerator experiments (Dubna-Fermilab) aimed at research into small-angle proton scattering using a supersonic gas target. Furthermore, he analyzes the mutual translation of epistemic and political interests, as well as the equality of living and non-living actors in a trading zone exemplified by a Proto-Megascience experiment.