Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War (2017)
Munns, David P. D. (Author)
University of Pittsburgh Press
Publication date: 2017
Language: English
Physical Details: 340 pages
This is the first history of phytotrons, huge climate-controlled laboratories that enabled plant scientists to experiment on the environmental causes of growth and development of living organisms. Made possible by computers and other modern technologies of the early Cold War, such as air conditioning and humidity control, phytotrons promised an end to global hunger and political instability, spreading around the world to thirty countries after World War II. The United States built nearly a dozen, including the first at Caltech in 1949. By the mid-1960s, as support and funding for basic science dwindled, phytotrons declined and ultimately disappeared—until, nearly thirty years later, the British built the Ecotron to study the impact of climate change on biological communities. By recalling the forgotten history of phytotrons, David P. D. Munns reminds us of the important role they can play in helping researchers unravel the complexities of natural ecosystems in the Anthropocene.
...MoreReview Johan Gärdebo (July 2020) Review of "Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War". Technology and Culture (pp. 985-986).
Review Aaron Thomas (2019) Review of "Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War". Agricultural History (pp. 367-369).
Review Dominic J. Berry (2019) Review of "Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War". Journal of the History of Biology (pp. 203-205).
Essay Review Alex Wellerstein (2018) The Many Places of Cold War Science. Isis: International Review Devoted to the History of Science and Its Cultural Influences (pp. 806-808).
Review Lino Camprubi (2017) Review of "Engineering the Environment: Phytotrons and the Quest for Climate Control in the Cold War". Centaurus: International Magazine of the History of Mathematics, Science, and Technology (pp. 157-159).
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