important names Flashcards

1
Q

Who is Robert Oppenheimer?

A

Theoretical Physicist
Worked with the military to produce weapons in WWII
Leader of the Manhattan Project
Lost security clearance due to arguments against atomic bomb

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2
Q

Who was Edward Teller?

A

Anti-Communist
A proponent of the hydrogen bomb
Worked with the military closely

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3
Q

Who is Vannevar Bush?

A

Head of Office of Scientific Research and Development
Argued that scientists should pursue basic research
Science-The Endless Frontier

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4
Q

What is the Manhattan Project?

A

Goal to create the first atomic bomb
Super secret organization/project

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5
Q

What is the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC)?

A

Created as a civilian agency that would focus on matters of interest to the military
Quasi-military agency

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6
Q

What is the General Advisory Committee (GAC)?

A

A group of scientists that could only advise the AEC and not implement any decisions

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7
Q

What is the Office of Naval Research (ONR)?

A

A research agency for the navy
Fedreally funded
Funded a huge bulk of the basic research at the time

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8
Q

What is the National Science Foundation (NSF)?

A

An independent agency of the U.S. government that promotes the advancement of science and engineering

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9
Q

What was SAGE?

A

Semi-automatic ground environment
“Direction centers” would display aggregated, real-time radar data from 23 defense sectors
Notify the Air Force where and when to send interceptor planes

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10
Q

What was Project Whirlwind?

A

An experimental digital computer built at the Lincoln Laboratory
Processed data in real-time to create a full-scale computerized national air defense network

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11
Q

What was Sputnik?

A

The launch of a Soviet Union satellite orbiting the Earth
Threw the US into a panic!

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12
Q

What does “big science” mean?

A

Represents large, expensive, and elaborate scientific research
Large teams of scientists
EX: Particle accelerators

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13
Q

What was E.O. Lawrence’s Radiation Laboratory at UC Berkeley?

A

Massive size, interdisciplinarity, budget, and operating structure
Invented cyclotron

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14
Q

What was the perspective of H. Bentley Glass?

A

Believed that only scientific experts like himself could advise the public
Elitist mindset

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15
Q

What was the perspective of Linus Pauling?

A

Believed that all scientists had a moral obligation to protest irresponsible use of destructive technologies

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16
Q

What was the perspective of the Committee for Nuclear Information?

A

Believed in citizen activism
Citizens had the right and the responsibility to make decisions about science policy

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17
Q

What was the Mansfield Amendment?

A

DOD funds would only be spent when there was a direct relationship to a specific military function

18
Q

Who were the JASONS?

A

A secret collective of physicists who provided advice to the Pentagon
Electromagnetic field
Had no scientific responsibility

19
Q

What was Project Hindsight?

A

A report that stated that there was no immediate examples that showed the benefit of investing in basic research

20
Q

What is “establishment science”?

A

It was the research and creation of technologies that aimed to only benefit the military and the government

21
Q

What is a “People’s Science”?

A

A scientific project to create an organization of scientists that will focus on research that will directly affect the people and society rather than the military

22
Q

What was the research of Herbert Boyer and Stanley Cohen?

A

Splicing DNA and creating rDNA technology
Innovated and popularized the science of genetic engineering

23
Q

What is Genentech?

A

Boyer and Swanson founded the company in 1976
Took advantage of venture capital investing in genetic engineering firms

24
Q

What was the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI)?

A

“Star Wars”
It was a defense oriented plan that was to create a lasar defense against potential nuclear weapons
Experts were shut out of planning process

25
Q

What was the Human Genome Project?

A

Los Almos scientists planned to catalog and sequence the human genome
Encouraged technology transfer and entrepreneruial science

26
Q

What was the National Defense Education Act?

A

Emphasis on funding for education K-12 specifically
Also boosted university funding

27
Q

What was the California Master Plan?

A

Expansion of the UC system
Focused on the recruitment of students out of high school

28
Q

What was Fermilab?

A

National Accelerator Laboratory (1957)
Large scale expensive research

29
Q

What was the Large Hadron Collider?

A

The largest most powerful particle accelerator (2008)
“Big science”
Funded by over 30 governments world-wide

30
Q

What is “pure science”?

A

Pure goal of understanding nature through science

31
Q

What is high energy physics?

A

It seeks to understand the most fundamental forces that underlie all physical phenomena

32
Q

What is the Standard Model?

A

Organized the particle zoo by classifying all subatomic particles

33
Q

What is the National Laboratory System (1946)?

A

Established to carry out projects the were too large and complex
Originally only did military research

34
Q

What was the Higher Education Amendment Act of 1972?

A

Prohibited discrimination based on sex

35
Q

Who was Warren Weaver?

A

Director of the Rockefeller Foundation
Coined molecular biology facilitating funding

36
Q

Who discovered double helix structure?

A

James Watson and Crick

37
Q

Who was Robert Merton?

A

He wrote about the sociology of science
“Ethos of science”
No ownership of science

38
Q

What was the Lysenko Affair?

A

Soviet biologist/agronomist Lysenko discredited Mendelian genetics and suppressed western science
Demonstrated the danger of politicalization of science

39
Q

What is the American/Western way of science?

A

Openness as a cores scientific value
Committed to freedome and democracy
(severely distorted)

40
Q

Who was Paul Berg?

A

1971- created the 1st recombinant DNA by slicing genes of two different viruses

41
Q

What was the Economic Recovery Act (1981)?

A

Tax credits for businesses that are investing in R&D

42
Q

What was the Bayh-Dole and Trademark Amendment (1980)?

A

Publicly funded reseaerch could be patented