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Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics Research
An anonymous reader writes with this snippet from Wired: "After six Nobel Prizes, the invention of the transistor, laser and countless contributions to computer science and technology, it is the end of the road for Bell Labs' fundamental physics research lab. Alcatel-Lucent, the parent company of Bell Labs, is pulling out of basic science, material physics and semiconductor research and will instead be focusing on more immediately marketable areas such as networking, high-speed electronics, wireless, nanotechnology and software." Jamie points out this list of Bell Labs' accomplishments at Wikipedia, including little things like the UNIX operating system.
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2008/08/bell-labs-kills.html There is the article
I once worked there. Man that place has gone to the dogs. "Less learnin, more earnin!" -Alcatel-Lucent CEO
Here's this old myth being repeated once more.
Sorry, Bell Labs never invented the transistor. The transistor had been invented (and patented) back in the 1920's. It was in use during WWII (see "A Different Kind of War" by Commodore Myles).
What Bell Labs DID invent was the SILICON transistor. And of course this was an incredible breakthrough.
Unfortunately, they also have tried claiming complete credit for the creation of the transistor in general, by propagating the myth that no transistors existed before the invention of the Silicon Transistor.
Please get your facts right, as it's a discredit to the people who did the original pioneering work in this field. Thanks.
I've seen so many of the big labs die. I happened to be at IBM Alamaden the day IBM exited the disk drive business, a sad day and the beginning of the end for Alamaden. Who in American industry is still doing basic research?
Well, IBM still is, and on a lot cooler stuff that just disk drives.
Advice: on VPS providers
Pulling out from materials science research AND focus on nanotechnology and high-speed electronics? That's nonsense.
Look at Intel: what keeps them one step ahead from an otherwise very creative company as AMD, (apart from the great team Intel has in Haifa) is huge and continuous investments in materials science. A little bit less electromigration, a bit better control of dielectric coefficients, a few nanometers less here and there - it all adds up.
As a researcher in nanotechnology, I have huge, HUGE respect for my materials science colleagues (as well as physical chemists).
"The agriculture ministry is not in charge of Gundam" - Japanese ministry official.
humorous, considering the precursor to Six Sigma was actually developed at Bell Labs...
from Wikipedia:
In 1924, Bells Labs physicist Dr. Walter A. Shewhart proposed the control chart as a method to determine when a process was in a state of statistical control. Shewart's methods were the basis for statistical process control (SPC) - the use of statistically-based tools and techniques for the management and improvement of processes. This was the origin of the modern quality movement, including Six Sigma.
To err is human, to really foul up requires a computer
My old advisor has been spending a lot of time in China and India lately. In his eyes, India really is moving in the direction of major fundamental research. He thinks that if things move at their current pace, there will be a crossover in about 20-30 years when India passes America in innovation.
I'm 29. I'm from India. I've lived in America for the last 6 years. Your advisor must be smoking something good. Please ask him to stop.
Why is this tagged USA? Alcatel-Lucent is a French company.
Negative.
Nanotech is on the leading edge of engineering disciplines, but is hardly pure science, unless you're talking about atomic or quantum level manipulation of matter.
The idea of making really small electronics and things are really not fundamental science questions, but just a matter of refining manufacturing techniques.
Actually, we have slightly more nuanced picture over here (Europe). The proverb is that America has the world's five best universities, but also 500 of the worst ones.
It's true that the Ivy League Schools and MIT, Berkeley, Stanford, CalTech are amazing places to do research. I wouldn't want to leave my beautiful old and very good university in the old world for a random place in the States, though. I find it funny how more or less every American I come across maintains a belief that his particular alma mater is "a very good school" and "everybody is trying to get a place there".
There is a fundamental difference, vacuum tubes are voltage controlled devices whereas transistors are current controlled.
India is still asking women to list their menstrual cycle on job applications. They aren't passing anyone anytime soon.