{"product_id":"the-squares-isbn-9780262543613","title":"The Squares","description":"\u003cb\u003eWhen ungroovy scientists did groovy science: how non-activist scientists and engineers adapted their work to a rapidly changing social and political landscape.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Squares\u003c\/i\u003e, Cyrus Mody shows how, between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, some scientists and engineers who did not consider themselves activists, New Leftists, or members of the counterculture accommodated their work to the rapidly changing social and political landscape of the time. These “square scientists,” Mody shows, began to do many of the things that the counterculture urged: turn away from military-industrial funding, become more interdisciplinary, and focus their research on solving problems of civil society. During the period Mody calls “the long 1970s,” ungroovy scientists were doing groovy science. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eMody offers a series of case studies of some of these collective efforts by non-activist scientists to use their technical knowledge for the good of society. He considers the region around Santa Barbara and the interplay of public universities, think tanks, established firms, new companies, philanthropies, and social movement organizations. He looks at Stanford University’s transition from Cold War science to commercialized technoscience; NASA’s search for a post-Apollo mission; the unsuccessful foray into solar energy by Nobel laureate Jack Kilby; the “civilianization” of the US semiconductor industry; and systems engineer Arthur D. Hall’s ill-fated promotion of automated agriculture.Preface and Acknowledgments ix\u003cbr\u003eList of Figures xiii\u003cbr\u003e1 Society in Disarray? Professional Societies and Physics in the 1970s 1\u003cbr\u003e2 Turn On, Tune In, Start Up: The Experimental Life in Santa Barbara 53\u003cbr\u003e3 A Federation of Bull Sessions: Interdisciplinarity at Stanford 93\u003cbr\u003e4 Nothing Fails like Success: From Moon to Earth at NASA 135\u003cbr\u003e5 Mistaking the Sunset for the Dawn: Jack Kilby's Solar Boom and Bust 177\u003cbr\u003e6 An End to Exceptionalism: Philips, Signetics, and Global Silicon Valley 219\u003cbr\u003e7 Engineering and Applied Physics in the Age of Fracture 259\u003cbr\u003eNotes 313\u003cbr\u003eIndex 389\u003cb\u003eIncluded in \u003ci\u003ePhysics Today\u003c\/i\u003e's \"Books and more that stood out in 2022\" list\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"In \u003ci\u003eThe Squares\u003c\/i\u003e, historian Cyrus Mody examines what it was like to be an ordinary, or 'square,' physicist during the 1970s. Although that decade is typically seen as being more culturally conservative than the flower-power ’60s, Mody demonstrates that it was an era in which even many physicists who self-identified as apolitical began working on societally engaged research topics such as solar power... The squares are fortunate that a person of Mody’s talents has taken them up.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e—\u003cb\u003ePhysics Today\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Essential and illuminating reading for historians of the technosciences, the military-industrial-academic complex, the silent majority, and postboom economies.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eTechnology and Culture\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e“Mody makes clear that morality, science, and politics are utterly inseparable projects. Whether science and engineering hold the potential for more responsible and equitable conduct remains an open, and crucial, question that we cannot hope to answer without studies like this one.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Amy E. Slaton, Professor, Drexel University\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e“\u003ci\u003eThe Squares\u003c\/i\u003e sheds new light on the subtle politics of engineers and scientists in the ‘long’ 1970s. Cyrus Mody’s account of their search for civic relevance in this turbulent era is informative, entertaining, and inspiring.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Andrew L. Russell, Dean of the College of Arts \u0026amp; Sciences, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, co-author of\u003c\/b\u003e \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe Innovation Delusion\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003eCyrus C. M. Mody\u003c\/b\u003e is Professor of the History of Science, Technology, and Innovation and Director of the Maastricht University Science, Technology and Society Studies program. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eInstrumental Community: Probe Microscopy and the Path to Nanotechnology\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Long Arm of Moore's Law: Microelectronics and American Science\u003c\/i\u003e (both published by the MIT Press).\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46301187309797,"sku":"NP9780262543613","price":65.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262543613.jpg?v=1767741637","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/es\/products\/the-squares-isbn-9780262543613","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}