ABSTRACT
Interwar natural sciences have tended to be understood, both temporally and thematically, in terms of the dramatic differences between the sciences of the turn and the middle of the twentieth century. This chapter examines these defining transformations of interwar natural science in terms of the prevailing question of science’s relationship to war, which took on new stakes in this period. The question framed renegotiations of science’s values, funding, infrastructures, geographies, and relationships to nation-states and colonial empires, as well as the objects and concepts of scientific disciplines. The conclusion synthesizes these considerations through the problem of Germany in interwar science.
