INTRODUCTION• On the face of it, few human activities would seem to be more different than war and science.•Mesopotamia pioneered in the development of weapons from bronze.•Archimedes not only calculated the area under a parabola and estimated the value of Pi, he also built siege engines and methods for setting enemy ships on fire using sunlight.•English scientist Isaac Newton’s work focused equally on ballistics and astronomy.

“Enlightment”

The period during the 16th and 17th centuries when philosophers celebrated the power of human reason.

Military became enthusiastic about Enlightenment principles, applying them to everything from designing fortresses to measuring the sizes of cannonballs.

The “metric system” of measurement that most of the world uses today was one product of these efforts, a system that is supposedly completely “rational”

Trend Towards Industrialism

Technology during World War I reflected a trend toward industrialism and the application of mass production methods to weapons and to the technology of warfare.

This trend began fifty years prior to World War I during the U.S. Civil War(1861-1865).

The first engineering school in the United States was not MIT or Stanford or Texas A&M, but West Point, the United States Army’s military academy.

World War I

The earlier years of the First World War can be characterized as a clash of 20th-century technology with 19th-century warfare with large no. of casualties.

But by the final years armies started to harness the myriad new technologies to effective military purposes.

Technology Advances

Between the wars

After WWI, Germany and the Soviet Union were dissatisfied powers that for different reasons cooperated with each other on military R & D.

Germany helped Soviet industry begin to modernize, and to assist in the establishment of tank production.

Air power was a major concern of Germany and Britain between the wars. Trade in aircraft engines continued, with Britain selling hundreds of its best to German firms - which used them in a first generation of aircraft, and then improved on them much for use in German aircraft.

Contd.

The failure of the World Disarmament Conference marked the beginnings of the arms race leading to war.

German “Luftwaffe” were a dreaded force leading to the war, because of its technological prowess.

We can point to numerous new inventions and scientific principles that emerged during the war like inventions in rocketry, Radar, ballistic missile, cruise missile, Atom Bomb etc.

World War II

Companies manufacturing consumer goods converted to manufacture military goods.

Automobile factories re-tooled to make tanks and airplanes .

Because of the need to put most resources into the war effort, consumers at home experienced shortages and rationing of many basic items such as rubber, gasoline, paper, and coffee .

Consumers had to conserve, or just do with out. Women’s skirts were made shorter to save material and bathing suits were made out of two pieces.

Invention of New materials

New materials emerged to fill these voids. Plastic wrap became a substitute for

aluminum foil for covering food. Cardboard milk and juice containers replaced

glass bottles. Acrylic sheets were molded into bomber

noses and fighter-plane canopies. A “modern” world of molded plywood

furniture, fiberglass, plastics, and polyester – has its roots in the materials innovations of World War II.

Radar Technology

Radar Technology, which was barely known before the war, became highly sophisticated till its end.

Radar engineering also set the foundations for modern electronics, especially television.

A system for radar navigation, called LORAN (long-range navigation) was the precursor to today’s satellite-based GPS technology.

Meteorologists also used this new technology to track storms.

Medical Sciences

The response to “trench diseases” during World War I were a triumph for medical sciences. Scientists took into account biological, social, environmental factors to control epidemics.

Penicillin was mass produced and used on such large scale for first time during World War II.

Medicines against tropical diseases like malaria got real focus.

DDT and Pesticides were used for killing mosquitoes. DDTs insecticidal properties were discovered only during the War.

The Science of Nutrition

Soldiers’ rations were carefully formulated to supply the maximum amount of nutrition and energy, while providing for variety and taste.

The “D” ration was a high-calorie emergency ration that came in the form of a fortified chocolate bar. A three-portion package of these bars would provide a soldier with 1,800

calories of energy.

Communication

The superheterodyne principle, the backbone of FM radios, was originally conceived by Edwin Armstrong during World War I.

. The concept of frequency hopping, fore-runner to CDMA technology, was developed and patented in 1942 by Hedy Lamarr and George Antheil of the U.S during World War II.

Contribution to Optics

Laser was invented and lot of subsequent work done by Charles Townes for DARPA and Fabrikant for the U.S.S.R.

. Finds applications in fiber optic comm., ophthalmology, laser printers, CDs etc. Night Vision developed at DARPA in the early 1960s.

Instrumental in development of thermal imaging. Led to advances in Remote sensing, IR telescoping, cancer detection. Contributions to Optics

Mathematics & Operational Research

Scientists in the U.K (Blackett, Gordon, Yates etc.) and in the U.S (George Dantzig) looked for ways to make better decisions in such areas as logistics and training schedules so as to reduce costs to the army and increase losses to the enemy.

Operations research was used extensively to maximise damage done to the enemy and resulted in significantly more devastation due to the war. Von Neumann used these sophisticated computing techniques to calculate the altitude for maximum damage in the Hiroshima-Nagasaki nuclear holocaust.

The Destroyer of the World

The United States mobilized a massive cadre of scientists, engineers, and industrial plants.

Roosevelt established a National Defense Research Committee in 1940 to support and organize research on weapons.

The work became known as the Manhattan Project. Roosevelt made sure that these scientists got all the money and supplies they needed.

Contd.

Scientists in Germany were working on an atomic bomb as well. But they barely could get out of the starting gate.

In terms of the technology, that two different types of weapons were built, to increase the chances of getting at least one of them right.

The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a uranium-type bomb, and the one dropped on Nagasaki used plutonium.

Defence vs Civilian research

Defence research marked Efficiency- Manhattan Project.

Easier access to resources. High motivation and focus. Scientists proved that wars could be won

by research and innovations. Roosevelt asked Vannevar Bush to study

how the federal government could work with scientists and universities in peacetime.