During the last two decades, the history of science in Israel has attracted much scholarly attention. Historians of science, science and technology studies (STS) scholars, and Middle East/Israel studies experts have focused on specific scientific disciplines or periods, analyzing the uniqueness of science and technology in Israel. This article explores what characterized Israel’s scientific activity precisely at the time of the state’s birth, and examine how the perception of science as key to Israel’s survival was constructed and reinforced in that formative phase. The focus here is on the natural sciences, as the perception of the natural sciences’ importance and their contribution to building the state and its security differed essentially from that of other disciplines. As this article demonstrates, the challenges that the natural sciences faced during Israel’s War of Independence were far more difficult than those faced by the social sciences and the humanities. This study analyzes scientific activity that took place in one single year, beginning with the establishment of the Science Corps in March 1948, two months before Israel’s declaring independence, until the end of its War of Independence in February 1949. As this study shows, both the war effort and the civilian activities strongly influenced scientific research and implementation in the nascent state.

在过去的二十年里，以色列的科学史引起了学术界的广泛关注。科学史学家、科学技术研究 (STS) 学者和中东/以色列研究专家专注于特定的科学学科或时期，分析以色列科学技术的独特性。本文探讨了以色列科学活动在国家诞生时的特征，并研究了科学作为以色列生存关键的观念是如何在形成阶段构建和加强的。这里的重点是自然科学，因为对自然科学的重要性及其对建设国家和国家安全的贡献的认识与其他学科有本质的不同。正如本文所展示的，自然科学在以色列独立战争期间所面临的挑战远比社会科学和人文学科面临的挑战要困难得多。本研究分析了一年内发生的科学活动，从 1948 年 3 月成立科学兵团开始，也就是以色列宣布独立前两个月，直到 1949 年 2 月独立战争结束。战争努力和民间活动极大地影响了新生国家的科学研究和实施。