Accessory to War; The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
New York, N.Y. W. W. Norton & Company, 2018. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. xiv, 576, [2] pages. Includes Prologue, Acknowledgments, Notes, Selected Sources, and Index. Also includes Situational Awareness, with chapters on A Time to Kill, Star Power, Sea Power, and Arming the Eye; The Ultimate High Ground, with chapters on Unseen, Undetected, Unspoken; Detection Stories; Making War, Seeking Peace; Space Power; and A Time to Heal. In this fascinating foray into the centuries-old relationship between science and military power, acclaimed astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson and writer-researcher Avis Lang examine how the methods and tools of astrophysics have been enlisted in the service of war. Neil deGrasse Tyson (born October 5, 1958) is an American astrophysicist, planetary scientist and author. Since 1996, he has been the Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium at the Rose Center for Earth and Space in New York City. The center is part of the American Museum of Natural History, where Tyson founded the Department of Astrophysics in 1997. In 1994, he joined the Hayden Planetarium as a staff scientist. In 1996, he became director of the planetarium. Tyson served on a 2001 government commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry and on the 2004 Moon, Mars and Beyond commission. Avis Lang is a research associate at the American Museum of Natural History’s Hayden Planetarium. For half a decade, she edited Tyson’s Natural History magazine column, Universe, parts of which became the basis for his Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, and later edited his anthology Space Chronicles. An exploration of the bonds, fiscal and intellectual, between science and the military. Every 3.6 days, write renowned astrophysicist Tyson (Astrophysics for People in a Hurry, 2017, etc.) and Lang, a research associate at the Hayden Planetarium, an unclassified research paper by a scientist affiliated with the Los Alamos National Laboratory appears, swelling the literature of astrophysics with work on supernovas, gamma ray bursts, and all such manner of future-shock science. The authors deliver a history that is broader than its subtitle suggests; though Tyson is a space scientist, the military-industrial complex leverages workers in every scientific discipline, from agronomy to zoology. This linkage has become ever tighter in the years since 9/11, when it was “a fine time to be a mercenary, a military engineering firm, or a giant aerospace company.” Science and technology workers were close behind, flush with billions of dollars delivered to a wide variety of projects. Though academic scientists were a minor part of the mix, writes Tyson, “it has long been clear to me that the space research my colleagues and I conduct plugs firmly and fundamentally into the nation’s military might." Thus it ever was, perhaps. Between 1903 and 1916, write the authors, only 1,000 planes were manufactured in the United States, but put on a war footing and with federal funds flowing, the aerospace industry was turning out twice that many planes every month, the product of the close relationship among industry, science, and government that has reigned ever since. The leveraging of science in the national interest goes against the basic spirit of the enterprise, since science is supposed to be universal and “in space there is no religion, culture, or politics”—and yet the military is where the money is even if the funding for astrophysics, and indeed basic science, is the tiniest fraction of military spending overall. An intriguing history. Look for mines and ray guns on the final frontier, for, as the authors conclude, “what a country funds is what that country prioritizes.”. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Astrophysics, Military Technology, Aerospace, Deterrence, Global Positioning, Infrared, International Space Station, Lockheed Martin, Military Satellites, NASA, Radar, Remote-Sensing, Strategic Defense, Weapons
ISBN: 9780393064445
[Book #81360]
Price: $50.00