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Tunnel Vision
B
y theendof thedecade,government funding forBigSciencebegan towaneasbusi-
ness took amore active role in research, engineering, and technological innovation.
Given the freedom that private enterpriseswere allowed inWestern countries, they
had advantages over the state-controlled scientists in the Soviet Bloc.When engi-
neers began tunneling under the English Channel, for instance, to connectGreat
Britainwith Francewith a high-speed rail line, private enterprise, not the govern-
ment, footed thebill.
Referred to as the “Chunnel,” a combination of “channel” and “tunnel,” the
31-mile (50-km) tunnel was a collaborative effort between French and British
companies. InGreatBritain, themoney for the project came from two banks and
five construction companies, while in France, three banks and five construction
companieshelped pay the bills.Completed in 1994, theChunnel today isused by
20millionpeople a year.
AEurostar trainas itemerges from theChunnel
on theFrench side inCoquelles,nearCalais.
MOTMW-Science-FIANL.indd 38
3/30/16 2:00PM
CHAPTER4
39
PCs Grow Up
I
n theworld of computing, private enterprise clearly held
the reins: a number of companies in the United States—
some small and new, some large and established—began
producing personal computers.Once the domain of hob-
byists, PCs began popping up in homes, businesses, and
governmentoffices.Everyyearcompanies releasednewand
bettermodels,making the computer industry a cutthroat
business.Computers became smarter,morepowerful, and
easier to use. People, universities, businesses, and govern-
mentsbeganusing themonanunprecedented scale.
In1981, IBM introduced aPC that turned the comput-
ingworldon itshead.The computer camewith twofloppy
drives,acolormonitor
,andadotmatrixprinter.Bythe fol-
lowing year, the computerhadbecome such an important
partof life that
Time
magazinenamed it “Manof theYear,”
beating outRonaldReagan and PrimeMinisterMargaret
ThatcherofBritain.
“Computers were once regarded as distant, ominous
abstractions, like Big Brother,” themagazine wrote. “In
1982, they truly became personalized, brought down to
scale,so thatpeoplecouldhold,prodandplaywith them.”
Bioengineering
A
s the computer continued to leave itsmarkon theworld,
scientistsweremaking incrediblebreakthroughs inbioen-
gineering.One of themost remarkable accomplishments
was theability to createnewdrugsusinggeneticmaterial.
The first to do it were William Rutter and Pablo
Valenzuela of the University of California, who in 1981
produced a bioengineered
vaccine
against hepatitis B.
Until then, conventional hepatitis vaccines were made
from thebloodof those infectedwith the virus.That tech-
nique,however,presented scientistswithproblems.Blood
could contain anundetected virus.Moreover, therewasn’t
enough
plasma
tomeet thedemand for the vaccine.
By genetically engineering vaccines, scientists avoided
the use of human blood. Instead, researchers inserted a
gene from thehepatitisB virus into yeast cells.Those cells
AN EASY
INTERFACE
In theearlydaysofpersonal
computing,people typed inMS-DOS
commandsonablankscreen to
operate theircomputersandaccess
informationon them.ButBillGates
andPaulAllenhadsomething
different inmind. In 1985,Gates
andAllen’scompany,Microsoft,
cameoutwith itsfirstversionof
MicrosoftWindows,which rendered
MS-DOSnearlyobsolete.
Windows,however,wasnot the
firstoperating system to intro-
duce thegraphicaluser interface,
orGUI.Apple introduced its
now-iconicMacintosh computer
in 1984.Andwhile thefirstMacs
didn’t takeoffasquicklyas the
early IBM–basedPCsdid, they
were thefirst togivepeople
aneasyway to interactwitha
computer.
AnearlyAppleMacintosh
computer, fromaround 1984.
MOTMW-Science-FIANL.indd 39
3/30/16 2:00PM
T H E MAK I NG O F T H E MOD E RN WOR L D :
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GLOBAL STUDIES
Since the end of World War II, the world has
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THE MAKING OF THE MODERN WORLD: 1945 TO THE PRESENT OFFERS
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Education, Poverty, and Inequality........... -3636-9 -8280-9
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HBK ISBN E-ISBN
Series Consultant:
Ruud van Dijk
Ruud van Dijk teaches the history of international
relations at the University of Amsterdam, the
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University of Kansas, and Ohio University, where he
obtained his Ph.D. in 1999. He has also taught at
Carnegie Mellon University, Dickinson College, and
the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where he
also served as editor at the Center for 21st Century
Studies.
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