In Retrospect: Science – The Endless Frontier
Seventy years after Vannevar Bush's landmark report "Science – The Endless Frontier" laid the foundation for U.S. post-war science policy, this retrospective examines its enduring influence and the challenges of applying its Cold War-era vision to modern scientific enterprise.
Background
- This article is a retrospective look at Vannevar Bush's 1945 report "Science – The Endless Frontier," published in Nature in 2010 on its 65th anniversary.
- The report is arguably the most influential document in US science policy: it argued that basic scientific research is the engine of national progress, health, and security, and it directly led to the creation of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in 1950.
- Vannevar Bush was a powerful American engineer and science administrator who headed the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during WWII, overseeing the Manhattan Project and the development of radar and the proximity fuse.
- The 2010 article reassesses the report's legacy — its successes (the post-war golden age of US science) and its unintended consequences (a "linear model" of innovation that downplays applied research and industry's role, and a tension between political accountability and scientific autonomy).
- The piece appeared in Nature as the US was debating science funding priorities, making it relevant to ongoing discussion about whether Bush's "social contract for science" still works.