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History EARLY NORTH AMERICAN SCIENCE In the early decades of its history, the United States was relatively isolated from Europe and also rather poor. At this stage America's scientific infrastructure was primitive compared to the long-established societies, institutes, and universities in Europe. The United States Constitution includes a clause about science. It gives Congress the power "to promote the progress of science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and discoveries." This clause formed the basis for the U.S. Patent and Copyright systems. Two of signers of the United States constitution did experiments; Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson . Like Franklin and Jefferson, most American scientists of the late 18th century were involved in the struggle to win American independence and forge a new nation. These scientists included the astronomer David Rittenhouse , the medical scientist Benjamin Rush , and the natural historian Charles Willson Peale . SCIENCE IMMIGRATION Many scientists visited or immigrated to the U.S. to take part in the nation's rapid growth. Alexander Graham Bell , who arrived from Scotland by way of Canada in 1872 , developed and patented the Telephone and related inventions. Charles Steinmetz , who came from Germany in 1889 , developed new alternating-current electrical systems at General Electric Company , and Vladimir Zworykin , who left Russia in 1919 and later worked on Television techniques. The Serb Nikola Tesla came to the United States in 1884 , where he worked on the brushless electrical motor based on rotating magnetic fields. Into the early 1900s Europe remained the center of science research, notably in England and Germany. However with the rise of the Nazi party in Germany, a number of scientists left the country and travelled to the US. One of the first to do so was Albert Einstein in 1933. At his urging, and often with his support, a good percentage of Germany's theoretical physics community, previously the best in the world, left for the US. Enrico Fermi , came from Italy in 1938 and led the work that produced the world's first self-sustaining Nuclear Chain Reaction . In the post-war era the US joined the most important countries in science and technology, being one of the only industrial countries not ravaged by war. Additionally, science and technology were seen to have greatly added to the Allied war victory, and were seen as absolutely crucial in the Cold War era. As a result, the US government became, for the first time, the largest single supporter of basic and applied scientific research. By the mid-1950s the research facilities in the US were among the best in the world. The changing pattern can be seen in the winners of the Nobel Prize s in physics and chemistry. During the first half-century of Nobel Prizes – from 1901 to 1950 – American winners were in a distinct minority in the science categories. Since 1950, Americans have won approximately half of the Nobel Prizes awarded in the sciences, while approximately the other half being awarded to Europe. AMERICAN APPLIED SCIENCE During the 19th century, . Because Americans lived so far from the well-springs of Western science and manufacturing, they often had to figure out their own ways of doing things. When Americans combined theoretical knowledge with " Yankee Ingenuity ," the result was a flow of important inventions. The great American inventors include Robert Fulton (the Steamboat ); Samuel Morse (the Telegraph ); Eli Whitney (the Cotton Gin ); Cyrus McCormick (the Reaper ); and Thomas Alva Edison . Another landmark application of scientific ideas to practical uses was the innovation of the brothers Wilbur And Orville Wright . In the 1890s they became fascinated with accounts of German glider experiments and began their own investigation into the principles of flight. Combining scientific knowledge and mechanical skills, the Wright brothers built and flew several Glider s. Then, on December 17 , 1903 , they successfully flew the first heavier-than-air, mechanically propelled Airplane . THE ATOMIC AGE AND "BIG SCIENCE" The concepts that led to the splitting of the atom were developed by the scientists of many countries, but the conversion of these ideas into the reality of nuclear fission was accomplished in the United States in early 1940s, both by many Americans but also aided tremendously by the influx of European intellectuals fleeing the growing conflagration sparked by Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini in Europe. During these crucial years, a number of the prominent European scientists, especially physicists, immigrated to the United States, where they would work: including Hans Bethe , Albert Einstein , Enrico Fermi , Leó Szilárd , Edward Teller , Felix Bloch , Emilio Segre , and Eugene Wigner , among many, many others. American academics worked hard to find positions at laboratories and universities for their European colleagues. After German physicists split a Uranium Nucleus in 1938 , a number of scientists concluded that a Nuclear Chain Reaction was feasible and possible. In a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt , written by Leó Szilárd and signed by Albert Einstein , warned that this breakthrough would permit the construction of "extremely powerful bombs." This warning inspired an executive order towards the investigation of using uranium as a weapon, which later was superseded during World War II by the Manhattan Project the full Allied effort to be the first to build an Atomic Bomb . Along with the production of the atomic bomb, World War II also saw the entrance of an era known as " Big Science " with increased government patronage of scientific research. The advantage of a scientifically and technologically sophisticated country became all too apparent during wartime, and in the ideological Cold War to follow the importance of scientific strength in even peacetime applications became too much for the government to any more leave to philanthropy and private industry alone. This increased expenditure on scientific research and education propelled the United States to the forefront of the international scientific community -- an amazing feat for a country which only a few decades before still had to send its most promising students to Europe for extensive scientific education. The first US commercial Nuclear Power Plant started operation in Illinois in 1956 . At the time, the future for nuclear energy in the United States looked bright. But opponents criticized the Safety of power plants and questioned whether safe disposal of Nuclear Waste could be assured. A 1979 accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania turned many Americans against Nuclear Power . The cost of building a nuclear power plant escalated, and other, more economical sources of power began to look more appealing. During the 1970s and 1980s, plans for several nuclear plants were cancelled, and the future of nuclear power remains in a state of uncertainty in the United States. Meanwhile, like everywhere on Earth, American scientists have been experimenting with other Renewable Energy , including Solar Power . Although solar power generation is still not economical in much of the United States, recent developments might make it more affordable. THE "SPACE AGE" Running almost in tandem with the Atomic Age has been the Space Age . American Robert Goddard was one of the first scientists to experiment with Rocket propulsion systems. In his small laboratory in Worcester, Massachusetts , Goddard worked with Liquid Oxygen and Gasoline to propel rockets into the Atmosphere , and in 1926 he successfully fired the world's first liquid-fuel rocket which reached a height of 12.5 Meters . Over the next 10 years, Goddard's rockets achieved modest altitudes of nearly two Kilometer s, and interest in Rocketry increased in the United States, Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union. As Allied forces advanced during World War II, both the American and Russian forces searched for top German scientists who could be claimed as "spoils" for their country. In particular, the American effort to bring home German rocket technology in Operation Paperclip , and the bringing of German rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun (who would later sit at the head of NASA ) stand out in particular. Expendable rockets provided the means for launching artificial Satellite s, as well as Manned Spacecraft . In 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first satellite, Sputnik I , and the United States followed with Explorer I in 1958 . The first manned space flights were made in the spring of 1961 , first by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin and then by American astronaut Alan Shepard . From those first tentative steps, to the 1969 Apollo Program landing on the Moon and Space Shuttle , the U.S. has worked on space technology like most developed countries. MEDICINE AND HEALTH CARE As in physics and chemistry, Americans have had a large share of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine since World War II. The National Institutes Of Health , the focal point for biomedical research in the United States, is in important role. NIH research has contributed to many medical achievements. For example, mortality from Heart Disease , the number-one killer in the United States, dropped 41 percent between 1971 and 1991. The death rate for Stroke s decreased by 59 percent during the same period. Between 1991 and 1995, the Cancer death rate fell by nearly 3 percent, the first sustained decline since national record-keeping began in the 1930s. And today more than 70 percent of children who get cancer are cured. NIH has helped molecular Genetics and Genomics research in Biomedical Science . NIH is contributing to the Human Genome Project . Research conducted by universities, hospitals, and corporations also contributes to improvement in diagnosis and treatment of disease. NIH funded the basic research on Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome ( AIDS ), for example, but many of the drugs used to treat the disease have emerged from the laboratories of the global Pharmaceutical Industry . Since the US Surgeon General first warned Americans about the Dangers Of Smoking in 1964 , the percentage of Americans who smoke has declined from almost 50 percent to approximately 25 percent. Smoking is no longer permitted in most public buildings or on trains, buses, and airplanes traveling within the United States, and most American restaurants are divided into areas where smoking is permitted and those where it is not. Studies have linked a significant drop in the rate of lung cancer to a nationwide decline in cigarette smoking. Like most countries, the federal government also encourages Americans to exercise regularly and to eat healthily, including large quantities of Fruit s and Vegetable s. More than 40 percent of Americans today Exercise or play a Sport as part of their regular routine. The per capita consumption of fruits and vegetables has increased by about 20 percent since 1970. TROUBLING SIGNS In recent years the formerly natural split between research and commercial activity has become increasingly blurry. Many purely theoretical advances have been funded at various industrial Think Tank s such as Xerox 's PARC and AT&T 's Bell Labs , with little or no interest in the possible commercial applications of the research being carried out. Research centers like these are increasingly seen as a thing of the past, as companies demand better return on their investment dollar. Meanwhile the laws governing the use of public funds, notably federal research grants, have increasingly allowed for commercial interests to immediately take the research and patent it. Changes to these laws have been demanded for some time, notably by the pharmaceutical industry, in order to get products into the marketplace faster. They argue that they will be providing the drug to the public anyway, so there is no reason to demand that those developments made with public funds shouldn't be commerciallized as soon as possible. However this has also led to a number of abuses that are increasing the ire of the consumers. One case in particular, the development of AZT, deserves mention. AZT was originally developed using public funding in the 1960s as a treatment for cancer, during a time when it was thought that cancer was caused by a Retrovirus . When its efficacy against AIDS was demonstrated in the 1980s, Glaxo-Wellcome immediately patented it, thereby generating huge profits for essentially zero money of their own. Meanwhile the patent process itself is seen as being increasingly abused. After years of complaints about what could and could not be patented, the United States Patent And Trademark Office relented and allowed mathematical formulas and computer programs to be patented. The result has been a rush of dubious patents that have strained the system, filling it with patents that many consider invalid. These developments are seen by some as a troubling pattern, in which commercial interests are being given increasing power over the direction of basic research, and the applications that come out of that research. It is not entirely clear what the effects of these changes will be. In February 2004, the Union Of Concerned Scientists released a report titled " Scientific Integrity In Policymaking " that purported to document the Bush administration's repeated imposition of ideological beliefs on the scientific process. More than 60 leading scientists, including 20 Nobel laureates, contributed to the report. SEE ALSO |
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