Introduction
1 The Personal, the Political, and the Scientific
2 Seeing the Ocean through Operational Eyes: The Stommel-Arons Model of Abyssal Circulation
3 Whose Science Is It Anyway? The Woods Hole Palace Revolt
4 Stymied by Secrecy: Harry Hess and Seafloor Spreading
5 The Iron Curtain of Classification: What Difference Did It Make?
6 Why the Navy Built
Alvin 7 Painting Projects White: The Discovery of Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents
8 From Expertise to Advocacy: The Seabed Disposal of Radioactive Waste
9 Changing the Mission: From the Cold War to Climate Change
Conclusion: The Context of Motivation
Acknowledgments
Sources and Abbreviations
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Charles Kennel, former director, Scripps Research Institute
"Had I known then what I have learned from Oreskes’s new book, I would have been a better Scripps director."
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Rhode Island
"Oreskes's timely, clear-eyed, and extensive history serves as a powerful reminder in a time when our oceans and basic science are under attack: we must defend scientific truth."
Peter Galison, Harvard University
"Science on a Mission is a subtle, human picture of science at war, both hot and cold. Focusing on three vastly important institutes of oceanography, Oreskes tracks how the demands of international conflict have shaped the discipline. In fascinating detail, she explores the discovery of the deep ocean currents and their dynamics; in another precisely documented section, she illuminates the military origins of the ‘pure science’ bathysphere Alvin. With engaging prose and scientific grasp, Oreskes gives us a rich and well-told history of how the navy’s engagement redefined the field, ushering in central discoveries of modern oceanography while hiding its secret-cloaked depths."
Katharine Anderson, York University
“With her characteristic but rare combination of philosophical and historical insight, and her sharp eye for the politics beneath the surface, Oreskes has skillfully interpreted the wide-ranging legacies of oceanography and brought them into our understanding of scientific—and political—debates of the present day."
Matthew England, New South Wales University
"Oreskes has given us a profound, sweeping history of the social and political construction of Cold War science. Her analysis lends fascinating insight into the role of the war economy in the creation of American oceanography and raises complex questions about scientific integrity, intellectual autonomy, and the difference between pure and tainted science."
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