Vannevar Bush (1890-1974) was director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during World War II. He was also president of the Carnegie Institution for Science and chairman of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Rush D. Holt is CEO emeritus of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served in the US House of Representatives from 1999 to 2015; was head of the Office of Strategic Forces' Nuclear and Scientific Division, US Department of State; and has been assistant director of the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. Twitter @RushHolt
Here, the draw is not so much the text of Bush's report itself, but rather an excellent critical introduction by Rush Holt. . . . Holt's introduction takes seriously the idea that the United States is a democracy, and that scientists have a specific role to play in that democracy, which is not the same thing as saying that scientists should control science policy. ---Audra Wolfe, Never Just Science I just read the new Princeton University Press edition of Vannevar Bush's Science, The Endless Frontier, with an interesting introductory essay by Rush Holt. I don't think I'd ever read the whole of the famous Bush document before, and it was interesting to see how he made the pitch . . . . Both the Bush and the Holt essays are well worth a read. ---Diane Coyle, Enlightened Economist