This personalized narrative is both a technical and economic history showing how exploration geophysics evolved from simple scientific beginnings into a sophisticated science impacting civilization in diverse ways. It presents geophysics as an intriguing scientific and technical field full of sharp contrasts, revealing it as an unusual blend of the theoretical and the practical, the laboratory and the field, the nonprofit effort and the profit-making venture, a cornerstone of peace and an implement of war. Written by members of the profession well acquainted with many of the key actions and players, this book describes intriguing developments and applications that took place within three interrelated fields of earth physics-exploration geophysics, seismology, and oceanography-during the never-ending search for oil and natural gas. Stressing challenge and change, this chronicle is bracketed by two major flex points in Western civilization-the initial waging of deadly global war (1914-18) and the conclusion in the 1990s of the Cold War that threatened civilization with nuclear annihilation. It is a complex story of people and events that highlights the emergence of major industries on the international scene. The book is must reading for all practicing earth scientists and their families, investors in the industry, and people interested in economic geology, public and world affairs, military warfare, the history of science and technology, environmental sciences, and even outdoor adventure.

Geophysics in the Affairs of Man describes how geophysics has affected human affairs, with emphasis on the geophysical enterprise as an interplay of technical, social, and economic factors. Many of the key and intriguing developments that took place within several major fields of geophysics are divided into seven epochs, roughly broken into decades. Topics covered include the origins of the profession of geophysics, earth physics and oceanography, and geophysical aspects of undersea warfare. This book is comprised of nine chapters and begins with a discussion on some antecedents to the modern-day profession of geophysics through World War I. The following chapters focus on the golden days of exploration geophysics; classical seismology during the war years; the growth of geophysics during the 1950s; and the nature of the geophysical exploration industry. The closing chapter presents the views of numerous geophysicists about what they consider the most outstanding actions they were ever involved in, as well as what makes the profession unique. This monograph is written primarily for geophysicists, geologists, and geological engineers.

This is the completely revised and updated version of the popular and highly regarded textbook, Applied Geophysics. It describes the physical methods involved in exploration for hydrocarbons and minerals, which include gravity, magnetic, seismic, electrical, electromagnetic, radioactivity, and well-logging methods. All aspects of these methods are described, including basic theory, field equipment, techniques of data acquisition, data processing and interpretation, with the objective of locating commercial deposits of minerals, oil, and gas and determining their extent. In the fourteen years or so since the first edition of Applied Geophysics, many changes have taken place in this field, mainly as the result of new techniques, better instrumentation, and increased use of computers in the field and in the interpretation of data. The authors describe these changes in considerable detail, including improved methods of solving the inverse problem, specialized seismic methods, magnetotellurics as a practical exploration method, time-domain electromagnetic methods, increased use of gamma-ray spectrometers, and improved well-logging methods and interpretation.

Did industry and commerce affect the concepts, values and epistemic foundations of different sciences? If so, how and to what extent? This book suggests that the most significant influence of industry on science in the two case studies treated here had to do with the issue of realism. Using wave propagation as the common thread, this is the first book to simultaneously analyse the emergence of realist attitudes towards the entities of the ionosphere and of the earth's crust. However, what led physicists and engineers to adopt realist attitudes? This book suggests that a new kind of realism --a realism of social and cultural origins- is the answer: a preliminary, entity realism responding to specific commercial and engineering interests, and a realism that was neither strictly instrumental nor exclusively operational. The book has two parts: while Part I focuses on the study of the ionosphere and how the British radio industry affected ionospheric physics, Part II focuses on the study of the Earth's crust and how the American oil industry affected crustal seismology.

The definitive history of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon agency that has quietly shaped war and technology for nearly sixty years. Founded in 1958 in response to the launch of Sputnik, the agency’s original mission was to create “the unimagined weapons of the future.” Over the decades, DARPA has been responsible for countless inventions and technologies that extend well beyond military technology. Sharon Weinberger gives us a riveting account of DARPA’s successes and failures, its remarkable innovations, and its wild-eyed schemes. We see how the threat of nuclear Armageddon sparked investment in computer networking, leading to the Internet, as well as to a proposal to power a missile-destroying particle beam by draining the Great Lakes. We learn how DARPA was responsible during the Vietnam War for both Agent Orange and the development of the world’s first armed drones, and how after 9/11 the agency sparked a national controversy over surveillance with its data-mining research. And we see how DARPA’s success with self-driving cars was followed by disappointing contributions to the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. Weinberger has interviewed more than one hundred former Pentagon officials and scientists involved in DARPA’s projects—many of whom have never spoken publicly about their work with the agency—and pored over countless declassified records from archives around the country, documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, and exclusive materials provided by sources. The Imagineers of War is a compelling and groundbreaking history in which science, technology, and politics collide.

This third edition includes two new chapters on quantum optics and physics of materials, and eight of the other chapters have been completely rewritten by new authors. All chapters have been revised and updated. Patent coverage now includes European and international patents. Theoretical materials a