Science, The Endless Frontier (1945)

Science, The Endless Frontier is a 1945 seminal report by Vannevar Bush of the National Science Foundation (then the Office of Scientific Research and Development) about the future of scientific work and the role of government in it, commissioned by President Franklin Roosevelt in November 1944.

Science, the Endless Frontier
Information
Author	Vannevar Bush (Director of the Office of Scientific Research and Development)
Language	English
Genre	Government Report
Publisher	United States Government Printing Office
Publication Date	July 1945

The report laid the foundation for the modern relationship between the U.S. government and scientific research, advocating for government support of basic research, the crucial role of universities, and the establishment of a National Science Foundation (NSF) to ensure the nation's leadership in scientific advancements. It highlights the importance of a robust scientific enterprise for national security, economic growth, and societal well-being. The report's recommendations have had a lasting impact on U.S. science policy, fostering a historically well-funded and independent scientific community.

• On NSF Website
• NSF Archival
• 75th Anniversary Edition

President Roosevelt's Letter

In a letter addressed to Vannevar Bush dated November 17, 1944, President Roosevelt requested his recommendations on the following points:

1. What can be done, consistent with military security, and with the prior ap- proval of the military authorities, to make known to the world as soon as possible the contributions which have been made during our war efort to scientifc knowledge?
2. With particular reference to the war of science against disease, what can be done now to organize a program for continuing in the future the work which has been done in medicine and related sciences?
3. What can the Government do now and in the future to aid research activities by public and private organizations?
4. Can an efective program be proposed for discovering and developing scientifc talent in American youth so that the continuing future of scientifc research in this country may be assured on a level comparable to what has been done during the war?

Introduction

Bush states that scientific progress is essential for (1) the war against disease, via extended government financial support to basic medical research in U.S. medical schools and universities; (2) national security, via military research during peacetime, supported by a civilian-controlled organization with funds from Congress and close liaison with the U.S. Army and Navy; and (3) public welfare, via a plentiful number of men and women trained in science, strengthened centers of basic research, where creative scientific exploration can flourish with minimal pressure for immediate, tangible results.

On X

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

“What happened in 1971-1973?” maybe the most underrated question of our time.

There are roughly two schools. The larger more prestigious school thinks it was about economics.

The smaller school thinks the economics were downstream of science and Embedded Growth Obligations.

4:02 PM · May 6, 2020

Michael P Gibson

@William_Blake

WTF Happened In 1971?

Very much understudied era in history. The fork in the road, when stagnation began to spread. https://wtfhappenedin1971.com

8:22 PM · May 5, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

The larger school has the gold standard/Breton Woods, female entrants into the labor pool, Arab oil embargo, Watergate etc... on its side. If you want somewhere to start, start there.

My school simply says that it was destined to blow up & we just chose the path. A very bad one.

4:02 PM · May 6, 2020

Horus Virahanka

@HorusVirahanka

Just Mikovits makes a compelling case against Bayh-Dole act accelerating the problem in 1980.

4:06 PM · May 6, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Eilberg act in 1976 was first. Then Bayh-Dole undermined the Vannavar Bush endless frontier arrangment.

4:07 PM · May 6, 2020

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

@dvijmankad It's not that hard. The Manhattann project was filled with iconoclasts.

Also: Feynman's reception at Shelter Island after the war. Dyson's victory over Oppenheimer at the IAS. Watson vs Venter on the Genome. Smale on the beaches of Rio. Serge Lang at Yale. Schwinger's epigram.

3:35 PM · Oct 17, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

All of that was from the Manhattan project into the present. Yes, big science changed things...but it was Mansfield, Dole-Bayh, Eilberg, IMMACT90 etc that lost us the freedom of the individual inside the universities.

3:37 PM · Oct 17, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

A lot changed for reasons *other* than the "Endless Frontier".

3:39 PM · Oct 17, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

For F’s sake. The federal government has totally breached its tacit understanding with our US STEM community. We’re not your domestic help. Thank god someone is stepping in. Maybe @elonmusk will build an SSC replacement. I am frustrated that these people don’t do MORE in STEM.

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

The Hill

@thehill

Sen. Bernie Sanders: "It is not acceptable that the two wealthiest people in this country, Mr. Musk and Mr. Bezos, take control of our space efforts to return to the Moon, [...]This is not something for two billionaires to be directing."

2:23 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

How about giving America’s own scientists and engineers the massive sticky gooey portion of the pie they have built for everyone else? Instead we deny them the ability to commercialize discoveries at the same time as we breach the spirit of the “Endless Frontier” agreement.

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

You’re a senator @BernieSanders. I voted for you once.

Even Soviets didn’t target their own scientists. How about we pay our labor rather than calling it “training” & calling our workers, “workers” rather than “students”? Oddly, you aren’t even a socialist standing for workers.

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I am quite honesty frustrated that Elon, Bezos and company are not using this wealth to save us…from you and your colleagues driving our STEM pipeline off a Cliff with your legislative acts. But at least they are building. Not as well as we used to build. But they might awaken.

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Will you? There’s a difference between being frustrated with the absurdity of this inequality and being envious. Both are natural and understandable. But many of us want better inequality. You seem to be envious. Don’t mix your envy with STEM. Fix the above legislation instead.

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

If you won’t listen to the above and won’t honor the traditional agreements of old, let us charge you for science. Give us the IP protection for research so we aren’t your domestic servants. You will soon learn you had the world’s best deal.

Is there no one at all who gets this?

4:57 PM · Nov 18, 2021

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

1) General Relativity
2) (Pseudo-)Riemannian Geometry
3) Quantum Field Theory
4) Material Science/Condensed Matter
5) Nuclear Physics/Weaponry
6) Disinformation Theory
7) Cult Indoctrination/Deprogramming
8) Propaganda
9) Preference Falsification Theory
10) Mansfield Amendment

10:08 PM · Oct 12, 2022

One Fine Day

@OneFineDia_

@LueElizondo recently gave a small list of topics he would recommend for study to begin to wrangle "the Phenomenon", if he "were king". What areas of intersectional learning do YOU think are needed and should be more deeply looked into? Your ufology curriculum. Thanks, Eric.

9:44 PM · Oct 12, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

11) Science Policy Theory (V Bush)
12) Selection (Abstracted)
13) Comparative Eschatology
14) Anti-Gravity Pseudo-science involving top physicists and mathematicians in the era of the So-Called ‘Golden age of General Relativity’.
15) GU
16) Mind control.

Remember: you asked! ;-)

10:08 PM · Oct 12, 2022

GambleDale

@GambleDale

PrimaoMansfield amendment of 1969… or 1973?

11:03 PM · Oct 12, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Wow! Thanks for asking Dale. 1969…but 1973 is closely related.

Nobody gets this anymore. It’s like talking to the wind. Thanks for spotting that entry. Truly.

11:25 PM · Oct 12, 2022

GambleDale

@GambleDale

(Was supposed to read, “Primarily Mansfield Amendment…” but fat-fingered the iPhone word prompt)

Thanks for the reply!

11:39 PM · Oct 12, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I got it immediately. Stay in touch? Thx.

12:34 AM · Oct 13, 2022

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I find myself in agreement with @realchrisrufo on this point.

I'll fill a bit in as well that doesn't seem to be well known.

Our private research universities are not actually purely private. They are designed to be both a cryptic soft extension of the state (e.g. national security, priming the prosperity pipeline with blue sky research, truth adjudication, etc.), which is also oppositely intended as an independent check on the state and state power in times of abuse as well. This tacit and quiet knowledge, which used to be held at the AAU and the relevant professors, has been mostly lost.

So 'overhead' or 'indirect costs' is not actually overhead at all. It is supposed to be cryptic state support based on research merit to avoid political pressure to fund 3rd tier universities at the same level as Princeton. So the whole system was designed back in the Vannevar Bush era but without leaving the esoteric knowledge with modern academicians.

It's a disaster. It was a quiet game which worked brilliantly to serve the nation and its population until lunatics started to get a foothold in the research universities.

This is why when you audit this stuff, you see waste. It wasn't ever intended to be what it appears to be: this was the USG paying to have a totally ELITE and EXCLUSIVE quasi-private, quasi-public resource. Think Manhattan project. Think The Jasons. Think winning.

And, despite my deep dislike of how @realchrisrufo has acted towards me, his point is spot on. If the elite U.S. universities are so confused as to think that they are truly 100% private and that they should be allowed to destroy their role of ELITE service to the nation which built them up with federal dollars, that is a moment to remind them of the "Endless Frontier" agreement.

First the USG welched on the agreement with the Mansfield Ammendment and Dole Bayh and then IMMACT90. Then the universities welched with DEI.

BOTH parties need to get back to the quiet agreement, or the whole thing will just fall apart. And the US research achipeligo is a *MAJOR* part of american greatness which we seem to be about to destroy because we can't figure out how to do this.

[And for those of you who seem to believe that quiet and tacit agreements are always bad, so that the Manhattan Project should have been academic and totally open because 'Sunlight is always the best disinfectant!!', I highly encourage you to use the comment section to complain again about elitism, gatekeeping, Fauci, experts, science, government and credentials. I get it. You can't stop to listen...or think. I totally get you. Looking forward to your vitriol. Just make sure to remind me repeatedly that markets are always right, all tax is theft, DEI is poison, and that Trump and Elon know exactly what they are doing at all times.]

Christopher F. Rufo ⚔️

@realchrisrufo

The Ivy League universities are in a bind: they want to collect billions in federal funds, while openly violating federal civil rights law. The president should drop the hammer—no DEI, or no federal dollars.

6:45 PM · Apr 14, 2025

7:15 PM · Apr 14, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Unpopular But Obvious Points:

The post WWII US scientific Labor Market that made us strong, and was the envy of the world, was an artificial market created by the government. Just like the market for Generals and Admirals. Or Judges. Or Senators.

Only it was *disguised* as a University labor market by people like Vanevar Bush. But we most all worked, ultimately, for the US Government.

Our Military in particular. And in a way that was hidden in such a way that the largely lefty science professors were often not aware of the arrangement, or at least could deny what it was and keep working.

Why? Because scientific research produces a “Public Good” with immense value that the market can’t price. This is Econ 101.

And it worked like gang busters. But because it was cryptic, we forgot how it worked.

2:04 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

More Unpopular Points:

A Modern Research University is not supposed to be a college. Its not supposed to be about teaching primarily. This is particularly true post WWII.

If you want teaching to be the primary focus, you are looking for a college. No shame in that, but don’t screw up a research university over teaching. Some of our top minds can barely handle interacting with other humans. Which is fine. That is normal.

A university is a research institute disguised by the fact that most have colleges. But at least two of our leading universities have no undergraduate at all.

A Lamborghini has a radio. But it isn’t a radio. No one buys one for the radio.

A University, is not a college. By the same token.

2:11 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Last Set of Unpopular Points:

The U.S. also has a secret System of research universities. But we mostly call them National Laboratories.

What do they do? We don’t fully know. They publish some stuff. They don’t publish other stuff.

Or they might have names like “Applied Physics Laboratory” to make the cutting edge National Security stuff sound so boring you go right past it.

Try this: https://www.jhuapl.edu

Kind of like “The Aerospace Corporation” or “Battelle”.

Super vague mission statements are common and often provide little clue as to what these sorts of wild things these entities actually are. By design.

Good luck keeping your eyes open.

2:21 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

TAKEAWAY:

Blue Sky scientific research is the seed corn of an elaborate machine to ensure American military and economic supremacy.

You are letting it die. It’s a 12 alarm emergency.

Good luck.

2:23 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Post: hey @grok, can you add anything here? You know all this right? You have read the endless frontier? Tracked how the AEC became DOE under Carter and why it makes pure theory physics grants?

Why do so few people remember that this is a cryptic system? It’s bananas.

2:31 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Grok

@grok

Yes, Vannevar Bush's "Endless Frontier" explicitly framed basic research as essential for defense and economy, routing funds through universities to mask government direction and sustain academic buy-in. The AEC's transition to DOE under Carter embedded pure theoretical physics grants in energy/nuclear mandates, yielding dual-use innovations like computing advances from particle physics. Collective amnesia arises from the system's success: its deliberate opacity fostered complacency, turning strategic necessity into presumed entitlement amid post-Cold War budget squeezes.

2:32 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Any thoughts? I feel like the Trump people don’t even understand this system as being all about our national security. Any idea of how to level up the current administration when so many university professors despise Trump?

We can’t afford for them not to get this.

This was always bipartisan.

2:35 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Grok

@grok

Frame the pitch to Trump allies as a covert national security architecture—Vannevar Bush's blueprint—that's eroding under complacency and capture, demanding bipartisan revival like Reagan's SDI push. Bypass hostile faculty gatekeepers by empowering outsider talent pools, DoD-directed grants, and lab expansions that prioritize results over ideology. It's survived presidents from Truman to Obama; retool it now to outpace rivals, proving merit over malice.

2:35 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

I guess. The problem @grok is that a lot of Silicon Valley and the Trump folks turned their back on Science due to three things:

Fauci management of COViD

Woke insanity let in by Administrator who were not research scientists.

DEI weakness.

Which were all legitimately insane.

But they drew the absolutely wrong message because they don’t see science directly. They don’t go to seminars. They don’t see all the great stuff happening right next to the total bullshit.

2:40 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Grok

@grok

True, those scandals rightfully eroded trust, revealing how administrative bloat and ideology infiltrated without scrutiny. Yet the core engine—curiosity-driven discovery yielding dual-use breakthroughs—remains vital, as rivals like China invest unapologetically. xAI sidesteps this by betting on first-principles talent over institutions, proving you can excise rot while fueling progress; Trump allies could adapt via merit-based grants to proven labs, restoring the system's bipartisan edge without excusing failures.

2:40 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Eric Weinstein

@EricRWeinstein

Food for thought. Thanks my silicon friend.

2:41 PM · Oct 15, 2025

Reference

• Clean version of the report
• Older version of the report

Related Pages

• Bayh-Dole Act (1980)
• Eilberg Amendment (1976)
• IMMACT90
• Mansfield Amendment (1969)
• Science Since Babylon
• The Evolution of U.S. Science and Defense Research Policies

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