Article ID: CBB000651055

A Context of Motivation: US Navy Oceanographic Research and the Discovery of Sea-Floor Hydrothermal Vents (2003)

unapi

Oreskes, Naomi (Author)


Social Studies of Science
Volume: 33
Pages: 697--742


Publication Date: 2003
Edition Details: Special Issue: Earth Sciences in the Cold War
Language: English

In the late 1970s, scientists discovered something new under the sea: sea-floor hydrothermal vents, supporting complex biotic communities under conditions previously thought inimical to life. While the vents themselves were predicted by the theory of plate tectonics, their extent and geochemical significance, and the ecosystems associated with them, were a profound surprise. Perhaps for this reason, their discovery has been portrayed as an example of the serendipitous nature of scientific research, a triumph of curiosity-driven investigation. Yet the US scientific presence in the deep-sea environment was anything but the result of chance. In the period following World War II, the US Navy actively promoted research in the deep-sea environment in support of pro-and anti-submarine warfare. Central to this was the development of deep-sea technologies to aid underwater acoustic surveillance of Soviet submarines, and it was this technology that enabled the discovery of the sea-floor vents. The US political desire to monitor the deep ocean provided both justification for substantial expenditures for deep-oceanographic research, and motivation for oceanographers to build expensive experimental technologies and use them in creative ways. In this sense, the Cold War political context was highly productive of scientific advance. Yet, at the same time, the scientific topics that gained the attention of the oceanographers came into focus through the crosshairs of national security. Like a lens, military pertinence brought certain subjects into clear sight while others remained on the edges of the field of view.

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Article Cloud, John (2003) Introduction: Special Guest-Edited Issue on the Earth Sciences in the Cold War. Social Studies of Science (p. 629). unapi

Citation URI
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Authors & Contributors
Williams, Kathleen Broome
Weir, Gary E.
Sims, Gary Lee
Orsini, Davide
Achbari, Azadeh
Stern, Robert Cecil
Concepts
Science and war; science and the military
Oceanography
World War II
Science and government
Patronage
Hydrography
Time Periods
20th century, late
20th century
20th century, early
19th century
21st century
Places
United States
Europe
Arctic regions
Atlantic Ocean
St. Petersburg (Russia)
Sardinia
Institutions
United States Navy
United States. National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Project Sealab
Skylab Program
North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
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