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Since its inception in 1958, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, has grown to become the Defense Department's most secret, most powerful, and most controversial military science research and development agency. Created by President Eisenhower to prevent another Sputnik, and to focus primarily on defensive programs against nuclear weapons, the agency--and its imagination and scope--has expanded enormously with each passing year....

"In Analogia, technology historian George Dyson presents a startling look back at the analog age and life before the digital revolution--and an unsettling vision of what comes next"-- Provided by publisher.

Basic scientific research and technological development have had an enormous impact on innovation, economic growth, and social well-being. Yet science policy debates have long been dominated by advocates for particular scientific fields or missions. In the absence of a deeper understanding of the changing framework in which innovation occurs, policymakers cannot predict how best to make and manage investments to exploit our most promising and important...

Disease Knows No Politics is the memoir of Dr. Elias Zerhouni, former NIH director and presidential envoy, chronicling his journey from war-torn Algeria to the highest levels of American science and government. The book highlights his commitment to keeping science and public health free from political influence, detailing his leadership during key national debates and his role in shaping biomedical research. It serves as both a tribute to the American...

"The remarkable life of one of the most influential men of the greatest generation, James B. Conant--a savvy architect of the nuclear age and the Cold War--told by his granddaughter, New York Times bestselling author Jennet Conant. James Bryant Conant was a towering figure. He was at the center of the mammoth threats and challenges of the twentieth century. As a young eminent chemist, he supervised the production of poison gas in WWI. As a controversial...

Congress empowered the Environmental Protection Agency on the theory that only a national agency that is insulated from accountability to voters could produce the scientifically-grounded pollution rules needed to save a careless public from its own filth. In this provocative book, David Schoenbrod explains how his experience as an environmental advocate brought him to this startling realization: letting EPA dictate to the nation is a mistake. Through...

In a career that included Presidential Science Advisor to George W. Bush, John Marburger stood on the front line of battles that pulled science deep into the political arena. Science controversies, he discovered, are never just about science. As his reflections show, science can no longer be shielded from public scrutiny and government supervision.

"The exploration of how key government officials were unaware of the implications of developing the first atomic bomb during World War II, leaving the lives of millions of Americans in the hands of a few brilliant scientists."-- Provided by publisher. "During World War II, the lives of millions of Americans lay precariously in the hands of a few brilliant scientists who raced to develop the first weapon of mass destruction. Elected officials gave...