Bulletin of the American Physical Society
2007 APS April Meeting
Volume 52, Number 3
Saturday–Tuesday, April 14–17, 2007; Jacksonville, Florida
Session T6: Sputnik, 1957: Its Effect on Science in America |
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Sponsoring Units: FHP Chair: William Evenson, Utah Valley State College Room: Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront Grand 7 |
Monday, April 16, 2007 1:30PM - 2:06PM |
T6.00001: Eisenhower, Scientists, and Sputnik Invited Speaker: On October 4, 1957, the Russians launched a 184-pound satellite into Earth orbit. This event had a tremendous impact on Americans as it called into question the capability of U. S. science v\'is-a-v\'is that of the Russians. President Dwight D. Eisenhower called ``his scientists'' to the Oval Office and a meeting took place that Hans Bethe has called an ``unforgettable hour.'' I. I. Rabi, Chairman of the Science Advisory Committee made several proposals to President Eisenhower which the President accepted immediately. Today, 50-years later, we are still living with the legacy of Sputnik. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2007 2:06PM - 2:42PM |
T6.00002: Sputnik's Impact on Science Education in America Invited Speaker: The launch of Sputnik, the world's first artificial Earth orbiting satellite, by the Soviet Union on October 4, 1957 was a triggering event. Before Sputnik pressure had been rising to mobilize America's intellectual resources to be more effective and useful in dealing with the Cold War. Sputnik released that pressure by stirring up a mixture of American hysteria, wounded self-esteem, fears of missile attacks, and deep questioning of the intellectual capabilities of popular democratic society and its educational system. After Sputnik the federal government took several remarkable actions: President Eisenhower established the position of Presidential Science Advisor; the House and the Senate reorganized their committee structures to focus on science policy; Congress created NASA -- the National Aeronautics and Space Agency -- and charged it to create a civilian space program; they tripled funding for the National Science Foundation to support basic research but also to improve science education and draw more young Americans into science and engineering; and they passed the National Defense Education Act which involved the federal government to an unprecedented extent with all levels of American education. I will describe some pre-Sputnik pressures to change American education, review some important effects of the subsequent changes, and talk about one major failure of change fostered by the national government. [Preview Abstract] |
Monday, April 16, 2007 2:42PM - 3:18PM |
T6.00003: An Unintended Consequence of the IGY: Eisenhower, Sputnik, and the Founding of NASA Invited Speaker: In October 1957 the Soviet Union launched the first Earth-circling artificial satellite and the crisis that resulted led to numerous actions in the United States aimed at ``remediating'' a Cold War crisis. This included the establishment of a separate civilian space agency charged with the conduct of an official program of scientific and technological space exploration, consolidation of Department of Defense space activities, the passage of the National Defense Education Act, the creation of a Presidential Science Advisor, and a host of lesser actions. The politics of these changes is fascinating, and has been interpreted as an appropriate political response to a unique crisis situation. Interest groups, all for differing reasons, prodded national leaders to undertake large-scale efforts, something the president thought unnecessarily expensive and once set in place impossible to dismantle. But was the Sputnik crisis truly a crisis in any real sense? Was it made into one by interest groups who used it for their own ends? This paper will trace briefly some of the major themes associated with the IGY and Sputnik and describe the political construction of the crisis as it emerged in 1957-1958. It will also discuss something about the transformation of federal science and technology that took place in the aftermath of the ``crisis'' and how it set in train a series of processes and policies that did not unravel until the end of the Cold War. [Preview Abstract] |
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