Science and Technology
Introduction
From its emergence as an independent nation, the United States has
encouraged science and invention. It has done this by promoting a free
flow of ideas, by encouraging the growth of "useful knowledge," and by
welcoming creative people from all over the world. The United States
Constitution itself reflects the desire to encourage scientific
activity. It gives Congress the power "to promote the progress of
science and useful arts, by securing for limited times to authors and
inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and
discoveries." This clause is the basis of the U.S. patent and trademark
system of America's founding fathers were actually scientists of some
repute. Benjamin Franklin conducted a series of experiments that proved
that lightning is a form of electricity. Thomas Jefferson was a student
of agriculture who introduced various types of rice, olive trees and
grasses into the New World.
During the 19th century, Britain,
France and Germany were the leading sources of new ideas in science and
mathematics; but if the United States lagged behind in the formulation
of theory, it excelled in using applied science. Because Americans lived
so far from the well-springs of Western science and manufacturing, they
often had to figure out their own ways of doing things. The result was a
flow of important inventions. The great American inventors include
Robert Fulton (the steamboat); Samuel F.B. Morse (the telegraph); Eli
Whitney (the cotton gin); Cyrus McCormick (the reaper); the Wright
Brothers (the powered flying machine) and Thomas Alva Edison, the most
fertile of them all, with more than a thousand inventions credited to
his name.
In the second half of the twentieth century, American
scientists were increasingly recognized for their contributions to
"pure" science, the formulation of concepts and theories. The changing
pattern can be seen in the winners of the Nobel Prizes in physics and
chemistry. During the first half-century of Nobel Prizes -- from 1901 to
1950 -- American winners were in a distinct minority in the science
categories. Since 1950, Americans have won approximately half of the
Nobel Prizes awarded in the sciences.
Abridged
from U.S. State Department IIP publications and other U.S. government
materials.