Science Overview

Scientific research was minimal in the United States as America was building up a solid foundation. Almost all of the scientific discoveries consisted of inventions that would improve practicality of certain tasks like traveling, picking crops, doing chores, and communicating. This research was based on "applied science." Applied science was any kind of scientific discovery, typically inventions, that can be applied to everyday life, for example a cotton gin. It was not until after World War I that scientist started to do work in "pure science." There were many scientists who immigrated to America and were a result of this scientific activity. The pure science consisted of unrelevant studies or indirect studies. For example, Albert Einstein and Robert Oppenheimer researched the atom and learned that it stores a mass amount of energy and if it were released it would set off a chain reaction. The two scientist then used this knowledge to come up with the infamous Atom bomb. The government then showed a high interest in the sciences as a result of the Atom bomb. They launched many technological races with foreign countries especially the Soviet Union. The US and Soviet Union went at it in a race to concur the skies, space, and earth. They had the space race and the arms race. Each country trying to show their dominance. However, the government has now slowed down on funding to science after the peak years from after the World War to the new century. The loss of funding is a result of the controversial topics that are being researched today. The controversies include cloning, stem cell research, and genetic testing.
I have found this article extremely helpful for mapping out a general scientific timeline for America. I can see that most of the experiments are funded by the government. Therefore, their interest will be what the scientist will be studying, and the government has a high interest in National Security. That is why most of the technological achievements in the 1940-70s were of military disent. However, once again I still have yet to find information on transportation and the development of highways. What also caught my eye was the Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative mainly because I have never heard about it. The article says that it connected studies from the arms race and the space race which are the two largest achievements in science. Going to the moon and creating the hydrogen bomb/discovering plutonium. Therefore, Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative will be one of my future topics of interest.

"science in America." American History. ABC-CLIO, 2010. Web. 31 Jan. 2010. .