Vannevar Bush

"How and how much should we seek R&D knowledge to pursue 21st century human and economic goals? The valid options are clearly presented here with incomparable diversity and depth of thought." Robert W. Galvin, Motorola, Inc. What are the links between technology and the economy? How much does research and development contribute to economic growth and productivity? In 1972, the National Science Foundation sponsored an historic colloquium on research and development and economic growth/productivity. At that time, the entire field of inquiry was in its infancy. Since then, a great deal of research has been devoted to the subject. This authoritative volume revisits the themes of the original conference and summarizes the contributions of research to the economy and society since that time. In this volume, some of the nation's most distinguished economists and science policy specialists assess the current state of knowledge and note the advances since the initial colloquium; examine recent contributions in light,of the heightened awareness of the complexity of the R&D process and the increased international competition in many high-technology sectors; and review the broader implications of the contributions of research in areas such as education, health, the environment, and quality of life. They present a broad and up-to-date summary of how R&D and innovation contribute to economic growth and society. Their essays address such issues as the contributions of targeted national research investment, the differences in social and private rates of return from research, the appropriate mix of public and private support for research, and other critical issues. While the book authoritatively answersmany questions, new analytical and policy puzzles have arisen. As the nation moves into a new era, the context and assumptions underlying the research system have undergone a transformation. The future roles of industrial r

This is a study of American scientists' encounters with Cold War anticommunism in the decade after WW2. Wang shows the effects of anticommunist ideology on the politics of science, & exposes divisions within the community, to provide a story of choices.

In this masterful biography of the Magellan of modern technology, Victor McElheny portrays a great inventor and entrepreneur in action. Second only to Edison in the number of patents he received (535), Land not only invented instant photography but he built a gigantic enterprise that turned out polarizers, high-speed and x-ray film, identification systems, 3D and instant movies, and military devices for aerial reconnaissance. He developed a new theory of color vision and, during the Cold War, spearheaded the development of the U2 spy plane. McElheny's insights into Land's innovative genius will speak to anyone interested in business, science, photography, or government.

In the past twenty years, the field of science and technology studies (S&TS) has made considerable progress toward illuminating the relationship between scientific knowledge and political power. These insights have not yet been synthesized or presented in a form that systematically highlights the connections between S&TS and other social sciences. This timely collection of essays by some of the leading scholars in the field attempts to fill that gap. The book develops the theme of 'co-production', showing how scientific knowledge both embeds and is embedded in social identities, institutions, representations and discourses. Accordingly, the authors argue, ways of knowing the world are inseparably linked to the ways in which people seek to organize and control it. Through studies of emerging knowledges, research practices and political institutions, the authors demonstrate that the idiom of co-production importantly extends the vocabulary of the traditional social sciences, offering fresh analytic perspectives on the nexus of science, power and culture.

The development of an American science establishment -- today an amalgam of scientists, engineers, universities, industrial laboratories, and federal science agencies -- began early in the twentieth century when the federal government began to invest in a national scientific infrastructure. During World War II this investment swelled to colossal proportions. At present, the yearly federal investment in basic science and technology amounts to about thirty-five billion dollars. How did this complex marriage between science and government occur? How will increasing economic pressures affect its future? In this engaging overview of the science establishment and its relationship with the federal government, renowned physicist Alfred K. Mann details the reasons behind the creation of the four nonmilitary federal science agencies that are responsible for the bulk of this budget and are the principal supporters of scientific research and technology in American universities. Looking into each agency, he elucidates the ways in which decisions were made, whose interests were at stake, and the resulting discoveries, mishaps, and bureaucratic mazes that were constructed in the name of research. Mann interweaves fascinating stories that grew out of the scientific enterprise: • the allies' invention during World War II of the proximity fuse and its tremendous battlefield success, • the first use of blood plasma in World War II field hospitals, • the invention of radar, • strategic policies of the Cold War, • the double helix of DNA, • space explorations and the space missions, • modern global positioning systems (GPS), • satellite surveillance, and • recent declassification of covert operations. Charting the origins and operations of a remarkable collaboration, For Better or for Worse encompasses many of the key scientific discoveries of our time and offers a renewed vision of the future direction of the United States science establishment.

The increasing centrality of memory to work being done across a wide range of disciplines has brought along with it vexed questions and far-reaching changes in the way knowledge is pursued. This timely collection provides a forum for demonstrating how various disciplines are addressing these concerns. Is an historian's approach to memory similar to that of theorists in media or cultural studies, or are their understandings in fact contradictory? Which methods of analysis are most appropriate in which contexts? What are the relations between individual and social memory? Why should we study memory and how can it enrich other research? What does its study bring to our understanding of subjectivity, identity and power? In addressing these knotty questions, Memory and Methodology showcases a rich and diverse range of research on memory. Leading scholars in anthropology, history, film and cultural studies address topics including places of memory; trauma, film and popular memory; memory texts; collaborative memory work and technologies of memory. This timely and interdisciplinary study represents a major contribution to our understanding of how memory is shaping contemporary academic research and of how people shape and are shaped by memory.