In 1945 the United States emerged from World War II—into a world profoundly altered by scientific growth. Under the pressure of wartime conditions, sophisticated technology—most notably radar—had been developed by exploiting basic physical principles, such as those of electronics and atomic phenomena, and this technology had proved crucial to the war's outcome. Yet in the postwar US, fewer than 25&percent; of high‐school students were studying physics at all, and what physics was taught emphasized rote learning and superficial description. Similar situations existed in the teaching of mathematics and of other sciences.