blog.wired.com— 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.
Aug 27, 2008View in Crawl 4
Yep, then the NeoCons are anti-education. Kind of hard to get the people who control most of the money to give it to an organization they don't agree with.
"That view is shortsighted and may drastically curtail the Labs' ability to come up with truly innovative discoveries."Also, if you were excited to do cutting edge physics work and had the chops for it... you're now looking for a job somewhere else.I wonder how many employees are going to quit in the next year.
Some truth in the last paragraph - especially the last line - but it is not clear what is wrong about theoretical part. Relativity was as pure theory as it can get. Thinking of pure theoretical research as irrelevant is what has made the shareholders of Lucent close the fundamental physics research. On the other hand ability to think of what might not pay of immediately in terms of gratification below mind levels is what separates human species from others majorly.
cwcentral - Some truth in the last paragraph - especially the last line - but it isnot clear what is wrong about theoretical part. Relativity was as pure theory as it can get. Thinking of pure theoretical research as irrelevant is what has made the shareholders of Lucent close the fundamental physics research. On the other hand ability to think of what might not pay of immediately in terms of gratification below mind levels is what separates human species from others majorly.
I worked at Bell Labs in a “branch lab” in Allentown Pennsylvania from 1980 – 1988, starting under the “old” regime and then through the years of the “divestiture” and adjustment and turmoil that followed. The culture shifted before my eyes, as we struggled to shift from an open environment to near paranoia that suddenly we had to keep all our work secret. For example, I was prohibited from giving an invited paper in Japan because management felt they (Japanese hosts) were just trying to get information. Just a few days ago, I was sent a link <a class="user" href="http://www.colliersires.com/lsi/">http://www.colliersires.com/lsi/</a> to the advertisement for the sale of the huge manufacturing facility at 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown PA. This historic building is where the first large scale manufacturing of transistors took place and where Bell Labs subsequently completed the final phases of technology development for both bipolar and CMOS technologies and transferred them to large scale production on site. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, I moved on to teach college physics 20 years ago, but it is sad to see this happen to Bell Labs.
lulzyAug 28, 2008
suck 5 dicks
spudgeboyAug 28, 2008
Yep, then the NeoCons are anti-education. Kind of hard to get the people who control most of the money to give it to an organization they don't agree with.
panteradactylAug 29, 2008
is it ok that i got all i needed from this story from the description?
dustin00Aug 29, 2008
"That view is shortsighted and may drastically curtail the Labs' ability to come up with truly innovative discoveries."Also, if you were excited to do cutting edge physics work and had the chops for it... you're now looking for a job somewhere else.I wonder how many employees are going to quit in the next year.
drjgSep 1, 2008
Some truth in the last paragraph - especially the last line - but it is not clear what is wrong about theoretical part. Relativity was as pure theory as it can get. Thinking of pure theoretical research as irrelevant is what has made the shareholders of Lucent close the fundamental physics research. On the other hand ability to think of what might not pay of immediately in terms of gratification below mind levels is what separates human species from others majorly.
drjgSep 1, 2008
cwcentral - Some truth in the last paragraph - especially the last line - but it isnot clear what is wrong about theoretical part. Relativity was as pure theory as it can get. Thinking of pure theoretical research as irrelevant is what has made the shareholders of Lucent close the fundamental physics research. On the other hand ability to think of what might not pay of immediately in terms of gratification below mind levels is what separates human species from others majorly.
rougerunnerSep 3, 2008
I worked at Bell Labs in a “branch lab” in Allentown Pennsylvania from 1980 – 1988, starting under the “old” regime and then through the years of the “divestiture” and adjustment and turmoil that followed. The culture shifted before my eyes, as we struggled to shift from an open environment to near paranoia that suddenly we had to keep all our work secret. For example, I was prohibited from giving an invited paper in Japan because management felt they (Japanese hosts) were just trying to get information. Just a few days ago, I was sent a link <a class="user" href="http://www.colliersires.com/lsi/">http://www.colliersires.com/lsi/</a> to the advertisement for the sale of the huge manufacturing facility at 555 Union Boulevard, Allentown PA. This historic building is where the first large scale manufacturing of transistors took place and where Bell Labs subsequently completed the final phases of technology development for both bipolar and CMOS technologies and transferred them to large scale production on site. Seeing the handwriting on the wall, I moved on to teach college physics 20 years ago, but it is sad to see this happen to Bell Labs.