Ronald Rainger

Science and Security before the Atomic Bomb: The Loyalty Case of Harald U. Sverdrup

Abstract In the summer of 1941, Harald Sverdrup, the Norwegian-born Director of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) in La Jolla, California, was denied security clearance to work on Navy-sponsored research in underwater acoustics applied to anti-submarine warfare. The clearance denial embarrassed the world renown oceanographer and Arctic explorer, who repeatedly offered his services to the U.S. government only to see scientists of far lesser reputation called upon to aid the war effort. The official story of Sverdrups denial was the risk of blackmail over relatives in occupied Norway. Declassified documents tell a different story. Although Sverdrups integrity was defended on the highest levels of U.S. science, doubt was cast upon him by members of his own institution, who accused him of being a Nazi sympathiser. Personal distrust, rooted in scientific and intellectual disagreement, spilled over into questions about Sverdrups loyalty and judgement. These doubts were considered sufficient grounds for withholding clearance, until Roger Revelle, a former student of Sverdrup now working within the Navy, was able to obtain a limited clearance for Sverdrup to develop techniques to forecast surf conditions during amphibious assaults. After the war, this work was credited with saving many lives, but at the time it placed Sverdrup out of the mainstream of Navy-sponsored oceanographic research. In being denied access to major areas of scientific work, Sverdrups position as a leader of American oceanography was undermined. The loyalty case of Harald Sverdrup illustrates the emergence of an institutional apparatus through which the U.S. military began to control and shape the organisation of American science in the twentieth century. Military sponsorship of scientific research, begun during the open conflicts of World War II and continuing into the simmering tensions of the Cold War, involved explicit control by the U.S. military of who had access to critical information. This in turn meant who could do science in conjunction with the military. As the U.S. Navy became the principal sponsor of oceanography in the post-war years, clearance to do military work became to a great extent clearance to do oceanography. Choices about who could be trusted were also choices about who would do science, and what kind of science they would do.

Adaptation and the Importance of Local Culture: Creating a Research School at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography

In the 1930s and 1940s a researchschool developed among scientists at theScripps Institution of Oceanography in LaJolla, California. Although that was due inlarge part to Harald U. Sverdrup, a prominentNorwegian oceanographer who served as Scrippsdirector from 1936 to 1948, this paperemphasizes the adaptive, evolving character ofthat research school. Conditions at Scrippsprior to Sverdrups arrival influenced hisefforts in successfully organizing a group ofscientists. Once at Scripps Sverdrup proved tobe an able leader, but he also had to adapt tothe local scientific culture. Trained in atradition that emphasized the study of physics,chemistry and meteorology, Sverdrups emphasison dynamical oceanography had a powerful impacton his new colleagues. But in the process hisunderstanding of oceanography also evolved. Hebecame more fully aware of the importance ofbiological and geological investigations, andit was only through close interaction with andreliance on a diverse group of scientists thatthere emerged an ecological understanding ofthe oceans that became a hallmark of Scrippsoceanography. Emphasizing the importance ofadaptation and interaction, and the work ofother scientists in addition to a group leader,this paper offers new insights into theformation of research schools.

Constructing a Landscape for Postwar Science: Roger Revelle, the Scripps Institution and the University of California, San Diego

This paper explores Roger Revelles activities in oceanography and institution-building during and after the Second World War. In particular, it explores his shift from a wartime acceptance of science serving mission-oriented objectives, to a defence ofthe distinction between basic and applied science. For Revelle, the Federal government, and especially the military, became theguarantor of basic research in oceanography. This understanding led him to privilege military sponsorship over contract research,and the physical over the biological sciences. He drew upon that understanding to construct a unique institutional geography for science in southern California.

SUBTLE AGENTS FOR CHANGE: THE JOURNAL OF PALEONTOLOGY, J. MARVIN WELLER, AND SHIFTING EMPHASES IN INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY, 1930–1965

Abstract Through an examination of the contents of the Journal of Paleontology (JP), this paper traces the growing interest in biological problems in mid twentieth-century invertebrate paleontology. While noting the continued dominance of descriptive morphology and systematics, the paper tracks the increasing attention paid to paleoecology, evolution and geographic distribution, and quantitative methods. An analysis of the debate over the relative importance of biology and geology for paleontology, and J. Marvin Wellers evolving views on the subject, further illustrate the main point. Neither Weller nor JP initiated the interest in biological questions, but both played an important role in bringing new developments to the attention of the paleontology community.

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