Word: sputniked
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...nurtured alliances based on consent, because such alliances would outlast the Soviet bloc, which was held together by brute force. Thus, NATO. And they said America could be patient abroad if it democratically solved problems at home, something the Soviet Union could not do. After the Soviets launched Sputnik, John F. Kennedy said America's cold war struggle depended on American kids learning science. "Every ... measure ... to improve self-confidence, discipline, moral and community spirit," wrote George Kennan, Truman's head of policy planning, "is a diplomatic victory over Moscow...
...wherewithal than about Washington's political will. The space agency is vetting contractors to build the ships, and the winning company may begin cutting metal by 2008. But Congress and the White House--a notoriously fickle bunch--must stay on board. The commitment the U.S. made to space from Sputnik through Apollo spanned four presidential administrations and seven changeovers on Capitol Hill. Only if leaders in the 21st century remain equally focused can they hope to match the accomplishments of their predecessors in the 20th...
...years from Baby Einstein to AP physics are an increasing source of worry for corporations like Merck and for colleges and universities, which see a shrinking pipeline of talented U.S. students pursuing the sciences. Without a Sputnik to galvanize the nation, and with an emphasis on testing in reading and math, the nation's already ill-equipped science teachers have been fighting for the attention of students, principals and policymakers. The policymakers, it seems, are starting to listen. After calling it imperative in his State of the Union speech that U.S. students receive a "firm grounding in math and science...
...enthusiasts, who start at about $32,000 in a public school teaching job, are lured to careers in the business world. "Corporate America is eating its feed corn," says Wheeler. Women who excel in science today, he says, have career options that weren't open to them in the Sputnik era, a victory for equality but a loss for schools. "Teachers are so frightened of these subjects that they transmit the fear to the children," says former Merck CEO P. Roy Vagelos. "These kids are afraid of science...
INTERNET After the Soviet Union beat the U.S. into space with the launch of Sputnik I, the first satellite, in 1957, the Department of Defense created the Advanced Research Projects Agency to kick-start innovation. It named Joseph Licklider to find ways to protect the U.S. against a space-based nuclear attack, and he believed a communications network was key to those efforts. The first Net went live in October 1969 with the University of California, Los Angeles, talking to the Stanford Research Institute. In 1990 the National Science Foundation expanded the system connecting university networks. It reached the public...