Science on a Mission

How Military Funding Shaped What We Do and Don't Know about the Ocean

Häftad, Engelska, 2022

AvNaomi Oreskes

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A vivid portrait of how Naval oversight shaped American oceanography, revealing what difference it makes who pays for science.What difference does it make who pays for science?Some might say none. If scientists seek to discover fundamental truths about the world, and they do so in an objective manner using well-established methods, then how could it matter who’s footing the bill? History, however, suggests otherwise. In science, as elsewhere, money is power. Tracing the recent history of oceanography, Naomi Oreskes discloses dramatic changes in American ocean science since the Cold War, uncovering how and why it changed. Much of it has to do with who pays.After World War II, the US military turned to a new, uncharted theater of warfare: the deep sea. The earth sciences—particularly physical oceanography and marine geophysics—became essential to the US Navy, which poured unprecedented money and logistical support into their study. Science on a Mission brings to light how this influx of military funding was both enabling and constricting: it resulted in the creation of important domains of knowledge but also significant, lasting, and consequential domains of ignorance.As Oreskes delves into the role of patronage in the history of science, what emerges is a vivid portrait of how naval oversight transformed what we know about the sea. It is a detailed, sweeping history that illuminates the ways funding shapes the subject, scope, and tenor of scientific work, and it raises profound questions about the purpose and character of American science. What difference does it make who pays? The short answer is: a lot.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2022-10-18
Mått152 x 229 x 43 mm
Vikt993 g
FormatHäftad
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor744
FörlagThe University of Chicago Press
ISBN9780226824000

Tillhör följande kategorier

Introduction1 The Personal, the Political, and the Scientific2 Seeing the Ocean through Operational Eyes: The Stommel-Arons Model of Abyssal Circulation3 Whose Science Is It Anyway? The Woods Hole Palace Revolt4 Stymied by Secrecy: Harry Hess and Seafloor Spreading5 The Iron Curtain of Classification: What Difference Did It Make?6 Why the Navy Built Alvin7 Painting Projects White: The Discovery of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents8 From Expertise to Advocacy: The Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste9 Changing the Mission: From the Cold War to Climate ChangeConclusion: The Context of MotivationAcknowledgmentsSources and AbbreviationsNotesBibliographyIndex

"Impressive and authoritative. . . . Over the past two decades, Oreskes has helped transform how scholars understand the history of scientific and political debates over continental drift and anthropogenic climate change. Her latest work weaves together insights from these and other intellectual spheres to deliver a crucial message: Patronage of knowledge production—that is, who pays for science—matters deeply. . . . Oreskes uses fascinating historical episodes to reveal serious, underappreciated consequences of oceanographers' prolonged reliance on secret, mission-driven navy projects. . . . We need more historical scholarship on how powerful entities produce ignorance as well as knowledge, and Oreskes provides a model for doing so. . . . As an exposé of how navy-sponsored oceanographers wound up constraining their own research agendas and believing their own myths, the book should give pause to all scientists who consider themselves immune to the potential influence of their funders, or who romanticize the golden age of military scientific patronage."