The US Scientific Expedition to Explore the Pacific Basin, 1838

USS Vincennes, from the Ex. Ex. mission, in Disappointment Bay, Antarctica. Attributed to Capt. Charles Wilkes, 1846.

We live in a time when there are few public advocates for a national investment in science. It is a time for “common sense” solutions to problems. Evidence-based scientific inquiry is denigrated as the province of the “elites,” and is …