Although “big science” is a rather nebulous term, most commentators have used it to describe an array of perceived changes in science and scientific practice during and after World War II. Following Alvin Weinberg's Reflections on Big Science (1967), the term has often been associated with the rise of a military–industrial–government–academic complex, the use/production of huge machines, the investment of massive resources, and the growth of large technoscientific organizations. As such, big science is often defined against a prewar “little science,” usually characterized by lone or heroic scientists (typically, a Thomas Edison- or Albert Einstein-type figure) working in their makeshift laboratory. Yet large-scale science is not a twentieth-century phenomenon. Astronomy, for example, modeled itself on the factory system during the nineteenth century, with an increase in the hierarchical division of labor and a focus on large-scale mission-oriented projects. These developments coincided with increased funding (mainly philanthropic) and the construction of ever larger telescopes, on which the field of inquiry came to depend.