The scientific value of high energy physics

Two aspects of the role of accelerators in the development of modern physical science are discussed. First, the increasing prominence of high energy/elementary particle physics in the past two decades, relative to other areas of physics, with suggestions about how the significance and cost of discoveries in different areas of science might be estimated; second, the justification of substantial funding for this kind of research on the grounds that it is 'fundamental' to science, with remarks on the change in judgements of fundamentality from a long-term historical perspective. (author)