August 28, 2008
Well crap...
From Wired:Bell Labs Kills Fundamental Physics ResearchAnd let's see -- the five year chart of Alcatel-Lucent's stock prices shows this:
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.
The idea is to align the research work in the Lab closer to areas that the parent company is focusing on, says Peter Benedict, spokesperson for Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent Ventures.
"In the new innovation model, research needs to keep addressing the need of the mother company," he says.
That view is shortsighted and may drastically curtail the Labs' ability to come up with truly innovative discoveries, respond critics.
"Fundamental physics is absolutely crucial to computing," says Mike Lubell, director of public affairs for the American Physical Society. "Say in the case of integrated circuits, there were many, many small steps that occurred along the way resulting from decades worth of work in matters of physics."
Bell Labs was one of the last bastions of basic research within the corporate world, which over the past several decades has largely focused its R&D efforts on applied research -- areas of study with more immediate prospects of paying off.
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Comments
The quickest way to boost the bottom line is to get rid of employees (or departments).
It's also the shortest sighted way to boost the bottom line.
The boost will last a very short time, then Bell Labs will fall farther and farther behind - because they got rid of the researchers that really built their business.
Posted by: Jen H at August 28, 2008 8:09 PMPost a comment