Office of Scientific Research and Development

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Office of Scientific Research and Development

The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States

United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
federal government created to coordinate scientific research for military purposes during World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Arrangements were made for its creation in May 1941, and it was formally created by on June 28, 1941.

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The Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) was an agency of the United States

United States

World War II

National Defense Research Committee

The National Defense Research Committee was an organization created "to coordinate, supervise, and conduct scientific research on the problems underlying the development, production, and use of mechanisms and devices of warfare" in the United States from June 27, 1940 until June 28, 1941....
(NDRC), was given almost unlimited access to funding and resources, and was run by Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush

Vannevar Bush was an United States engineer and science administrator known for his work on analog computer, his political role in the development of the atomic bomb, and the idea of the memex, which was seen decades later as a pioneering concept for the World Wide Web....
, who reported only to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

The research was widely varied, and included projects devoted to new and more accurate bomb

Bomb

A bomb is any of a range of explosive devices that typically rely on the exothermic chemical reaction of an explosive material to produce an extremely sudden and violent release of energy....
s, reliable detonators, work on the proximity fuze

Proximity fuze

A proximity fuze is a Fuse #Munition_fuses that is designed to detonate an Explosive material device automatically when the distance to target becomes smaller than a predetermined value or when the target passes through a given plane....
, radar

Radar

Radar is a system that uses electromagnetic radiation waves to identify the range, altitude, direction, or speed of both moving and fixed objects such as aircraft, ships, motor vehicles, weather formations, and terrain....
and early-warning systems, lighter and more accurate hand weapons, more effective medical treatments, more versatile vehicles, and, most secret of all, the "S-1 Section

S-1 Uranium Committee

The S-1 Uranium Committee was a Committee of the National Defense Research Committee that superseded the Briggs Advisory Committee on Uranium and later evolved into the Manhattan Project....
", which later became the Manhattan Project

Manhattan Project

The Manhattan Project was the project to develop the first atomic weapon during World War II; involving the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada....
and developed the first nuclear weapon

Nuclear weapon

A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either nuclear fission or a combination of fission and nuclear fusion....
s.

From October 1943 to October 1946, OSRD used conscientious objectors from Civilian Public Service

Civilian Public Service

The Civilian Public Service provided conscientious objectors in the United States an alternative service during World War II. From 1941 to 1947, nearly 12,000 draftees, willing to serve their country in some capacity but unwilling to do any type of military service, performed work of national importance in 152 CPS camps throughout the U...
as human guinea pigs to do research in the areas of malaria, altitude pressure, life raft rations, high altitude, frost bite, psycho-acoustics, poison gas, ingestion of and exposure to sea water, temperature extremes, climate, physiological hygiene, thiamine, bed rest

Bed rest

Bed rest is a doctor's prescription to spend a longer period of time in bed....
and aero medicine.

To study the effects of diet and nutrition, Dr. Ancel Keys

Ancel Keys

Ancel Benjamin Keys was an American scientist who studied the influence of diet on health. In particular, he hypothesised that different kinds of dietary fat had different effects on health....
of the University of Minnesota Laboratory of Physiological Hygiene placed 32 conscientious objectors on a controlled diet. For three months they were given a normal 3200 calorie diet. This was followed by six months of an 1800 calorie diet, fewer calories than provided by the famine diet experienced by the civilian population in wartime Europe. The research documented the men's ability to maintain physical output and the psychological effects such as introversion, lethargy, irritability and severe depression. The study then followed the men's long road to recovery as they returned to a normal diet and regained the weight lost during the experimentation. The men later indicated they would not have volunteered for this project had they known how rigorous it would turn out to be.

The OSRD was discontinued in December 1947.

Office of Scientific Research and Development

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