big science and the transits of venus 131
externalities can be the explicit aim of Big Science, such as in the case of
European investment in supersonic transport, or it can be a beneficial spin-
off, cascading into civilian industries, such as the improvement in deep- sea
drilling technologies resulting from the defunct Mohole project. Another
possible positive externality of Big Science is the creation of higher de-
mand for scientists, thus supporting a larger scientific community and pos-
sibly improving the quality of scientific education (Gomory 1992 , 82 ).
Interestingly, the realization of the intimate relationship between sci-
entific capabilities and national interest is a relatively recent phenomenon.
In the nineteenth century many governments were largely indifferent to
science (Plotkin 1978 ). Sponsorship of science was akin to state support
for the arts, a lavish signal of national power rather than a means for en-
hancing it (Finnemore 1993 , 567 ). Even when institutional links between
“science” and government existed, the potential was poorly realized. The
American National Academy of Sciences, for example, was established in
1863 and was supposed to serve an advisory role to the government. Yet
between 1863 and 1913 the US War Department addressed the academy
with only five minor questions: “On the Question of Tests for the Purity of
Whiskey; On the Preservation of Paint on Army Knapsacks; On Galvanic
Action from Association of Zinc and Iron; On the Exploration of the Yel-
lowstone; On Questions of Meteorological Science and its Applications”
(Schilling 1962 , 287 ). Governments distinguished between “scientists” and
“inventors” and found the former to be of little practical use or importance.
The connection between science and technology, that is, between basic
research and applied research, was realized only in the twentieth century,
to a large extent as a result of both world wars (Schilling 1962 ).
Within the Big Science debate, there is a tendency to equate basic
research with small science and technology with Big Science. Yet, every Big
Science project is likely to have some aspects of science and some of tech-
nology. While a clear-cut distinction between basic research and applied
research (technology) is not easy to make, it is still possible to place dif-
ferent Big Science projects along a continuum that runs between science
and technology. There is a noticeable difference, for example, between
projects aimed at studying the structure of the earth’s crust or mapping
the brain and projects aimed at constructing supersonic transport air-
planes or building national missile defense. In the case of the latter two,
the development of applied technologies is the explicit aim of the project;
in the first two examples, technology may be a desired spin- off, but the
project maintains its scientific facade.
As was the case in the nineteenth century, there are good reasons to
