Scientists help surfers spend billions

July 2006

To make life easier for scientists at CERN, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee invented something that changed the world. It's called the World Wide Web.

If you want to study the atoms and smaller particles that make up the universe, you've got a big problem. The equipment you need isn't just enormous, it's enormously expensive - something no country can afford on its own.

That's why Britain and 11 other countries created CERN (link opens in a new window)| in 1954. Located near Geneva, the laboratory provides the tools particle physicists need.

In a 40 kilometre network of tunnels, particles accelerate to incredible speeds almost to the speed of light. Then they collide inside vast devices that record the results of impact.

The next generation of equipment will cost €3 billion. Particles will collide in an underground chamber that's 46 metres long and 25 metres high.

Information overload

To start with, the number of scientists working at CERN was quite small. To take part in the experiments, they had to travel to Geneva, often staying there for long periods. Some moved to live there.

Steadily, though, interest grew. By the 1980s hundreds of researchers from all over the world were working on some of CERN's experiments. Among them was British computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee (link opens in a new window)|.

After a while Tim spotted that it was hard for researchers to track down the information they needed. Even if they were at CERN, they had to work out which computer it was on and what the file was called. It was even more difficult when the researchers were at their home universities, connecting remotely to CERN's computers.

In 1989 Tim and French researcher Robert Cailliau (link opens in a new window)| started work on a solution.

An idea that clicked

The result was the World Wide Web.

Scientists working with CERN started using the web in 1991. It quickly became a success, but it only worked on the computers they used.

Then instead of selling its new technology, CERN made the web public. People all over the world started using it - and not just for scientific research.

By the end of 1993 more than 500 websites were online. A year later there were 10,000. Ten million people were using them. Today it's thought there are almost 90 million websites worldwide and that more than a billion surfers use them.

It's proved to be a big opportunity for British business as well. In 2005 British shoppers spent £19 billion online, 32 per cent more than in 2004. The average online shopper spent more than £800 during the year.

Tim's work hasn't finished though. Today he heads the body that controls the web W3C (link opens in a new window)|. New features are being added to make it even more useful.

Now Sir Tim Berners-Lee, he has received numerous honours for his work from all over the world.