This essay offers an overview of the intellectual and social structures of science in the United States from the 1930s into the 1950s. It argues that Germanic immigrant scientists who fled the Nazis in the 1930s were vital in energizing a productive collegiality among scientists and reinvigorating a dialectical interplay between theorists and experimentalists, both of which characterize "classical" science. This unique intellectual contribution and the "internal dynamic" of doing science are described as becoming embedded in new social and ethical structures since World War II. New directions for research have been shaped by such "external" factors as the increased accountability of science, governmental mega-projects and secrecy, the enlarged dimension of "instrumentalities" in science, changes in social relationships in the laboratory, and changes in the expectations of the public. As a consequence, styles of doing science, the motivations of scientists, and theoretical/experimental interactions, all part of the "internal" dynamic of science, have been strained and transformed. The concluding chapter argues that the most appropriate designation for American science since the 1960s is not just "big." In the most expansive sense of the concept, it is Baroque.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:arizona.edu/oai:arizona.openrepository.com:10150/291856 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Remington, John Alvah, 1942- |
| Contributors | Carter, Paul A. |
| Publisher | The University of Arizona. |
| Source Sets | University of Arizona |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text, Thesis-Reproduction (electronic) |
| Rights | Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. |
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