"The scientific spirit . . . is perhaps the most profoundly distinguishing 

 feature of our civilization." — ^barbara ward 



Chapter XIV 



RESEARCH, MANPOWER, AND 

 ENGINEERING 



The foundation of our national marine science affairs program is a 

 strong and vigorous base of scientific research — techniques and speciahzed 

 knowledge of the classical scientific disciplines focused on unique problems 

 of the ocean environment, a growing pool of highly talented manpower, 

 and a creative engineering capability to translate scientific discover)' into 

 practical application. During the past decade Federal policies and programs 

 have sustained development of this foundation — a Federal effort spread 

 over many scientific and engineering disciplines and involving a wide variety 

 of institutions. 



The most significant advance in ocean sciences during the past 10 years 

 has been the development of a national capability to study the ocean and 

 ocean floor on a global basis. A key element has been the major increase in 

 the number and quality of people and observation platforms available for 

 that endeavor, but the heart of this accomplishment has been the intellectual 

 synthesis of many fragments of data into a set of unified concepts of the 

 marine environment. 



Major advances in modem technology and engineering have provided 

 more powerful tools to conduct research in the oceans and to answer scien- 

 tific questions. This engineering should also provide a bridge to transfer sci- 

 entific discovery to utilization and management of ocean resources. With our 

 modem fleet of research ships and supporting laboratory facilities, we 

 are able to observe, measure, and understand phenomena on a scale and 



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