Until the war, most scientific research in the United States had been supported by private foundations, local industries and undergraduate tuition fees. After the war, scientists experienced a continuity — even an expansion — of the wartime funding model. Almost all support for basic, unclassified research (as well as for mission-oriented defense projects) came from the federal government.While the main point here is that government became the major funder of research, the point that's more important to remember is Kaiser's description of research, pre-WW2, as being paid for by (and probably driven by) foundations, industry, and tuition.
But in the context of changing government funding, these are the same sources of money that seem to be becoming more and more important today. Could it be that the model of running science for the last 60 to 70 years has been 'abnormal'?
Part way through, Kaiser throws in another interesting historical quip:
Veterans of the intense, multidisciplinary wartime projects came to speak of a new type of scientist. They touted the war-forged 'radar philosophy' and the quintessential 'Los Alamos man': a pragmatist who could collaborate with everyone (emphasis is mine) from ballistics experts to metallurgists, and who had a gut feeling for the relevant phenomena without getting lost in philosophical niceties.Learning to work in collaborations and to do collaborative science is probably one of the more important and useful skills to pick up during a PhD, and it seems like the idea of a pragmatic 'serial collaborator' who manages to identify common ground with others in other disciplines seems to have also originated in the post-war period.
