Science on a Mission

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What difference does it make who pays for science? This is the question that animates Naomi Oreskes' Science on a Mission. Many might say "none, " because it is often thought that 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? By tracing the recent history of oceanography, Oreskes discloses dramatic changes in American science since the Cold War, uncovering how it changed, why it changed in these ways, and how these changes were productive of our current states of knowledge and ignorance. Much of this has to do with who pays.Toward the end of World War II and throughout the Cold War, the United States government poured unprecedented amounts of money and levels of logistical support into American science, and this influx of funding mattered profoundly. Science on a Mission brings to light how military support was both enabling and constricting. By influencing the direction of science, and who or what determines that direction, it resulted in the creation of important domains of knowledge, but also significant, lasting, and consequential domains of ignorance"--