Shaping Science and Industry touches on Australia's intellectual, political and economic life. It provides an account of the rapid growth of CSIR (to become CSIRO) during World War II. The contributions of many outstanding personalities are described such as Sir George Julius, Sir Charles Martin, Hedley Marston, DF Martyn, AEV Richardson, Sir David Rivett, Ian Clunies Ross and FWG White.

This book recounts the major effort to introduce and adapt new technologies as part of the war effort. Informative and non-technical accounts are given of some breakthroughs in agricultural research such as the eradication of prickly pear.