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CHAPTER 1 THE CHANGING CONTEXT FOR SCIENCE ANDTECHNOLOGY
Pages 1-8

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From page 1...
... America's strong public support for scientific and technological research is a somewhat recent phenomenon. Before World War II, the United States built its strength largely on new techniques of mass production, its large and rapidly expanding domestic market, the availability of inexpensive raw materials, and lively entrepreneurial traditions.
From page 2...
... During the decades after the war, the vision of Vannevar Bush was prominently realized.2 Basic research was championed by both the federal government and private industry. It was nourished in industrial laboratories and in America's rapidly expanding network of colleges and universities.3 (The appendix describes the federal government's current role in supporting research and development.)
From page 3...
... Much of the scientific knowledge and many of the technologies developed here since World War II have diffused to other countries through technology licensing, the growth of transnational corporations, publication in the open literature, and other routes of technology transfer. Other nations have invested heavily in the research, advanced training, institutions, and infrastructure needed to use existing technologies and to generate new skills and technologies.
From page 4...
... The extension of knowledge in some areas now depends on large and costly projects, and even comparatively small projects require costly instrumentation and other expensive inputs.5 Federal investment in scientific and technological megaprojects has generated tensions between the proponents of these projects and the great majority of scientists engaged in work requiring lessintensive capital investments. As other demands on the federal budget
From page 5...
... Other citizens blame scientists and engineers when technological change brings social disruption or personal distress, such as the loss of jobs; these negative effects of new technologies can contribute to public skepticism about claims of future progress. Changes in society have created problems that cannot be resolved through new scientific and engineering knowledge alone, yet public expectations for technical solutions persist.
From page 6...
... Governments will compete across the R&D spectrum as they seek to encourage the development of proprietary products and new knowledge. For example, the countries of the Pacific Rim, which once depended heavily on technology transfer from other countries, are already rapidly building up their basic research capabilities while they continue their focus on technological development.
From page 7...
... Smith. American Science Policy Since World War II.


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