#8220;mouse,” genetic engineering, and the Internet. Entire new high-tech industries- computers and biotechnology, for example-have sprung up close to major research universities and government laboratories. And nations with strong scientific communities tend to have the most technologically progressive firms and industries. Also, firms increasingly help fund university research which relates to their products. Today, the separation between university scientists and innovators is narrowing; scientists increasingly realize their work may have commercial value and are teaming with innovators to share in the potential profit. A few firms, of course, do find it profitable to conduct basic scientific research on their own. New scientific knowledge can give them a major head-start in creating an invention or new product. This is particularly true in the manufacturing and pharmaceutical industry, where it is not uncommon for firms to parlay new scientific knowledge from their corporate labs into new, patentable products.TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE MODERN PCTechnological advance is clearly evident in the development of the modern personal computer and the emergence of the Internet. Here is a briefhistory of these events.1945 Grace Murray Hopper finds a dead moth between relay contacts in the experimental Mark II computer at Harvard University. Whenever the computer subsequently malfunctions, workers set out to “debug” the device.1946 ENIAC is revealed. It is a precursor to the modern-day computer that relies on 18,000 vacuum tubes and fills 3000 cubic feet of space. 1947 AT&T scientists invent the “transfer resistance device” later known as the transistor. It replaces the less reliable vacuum tubes in computers.1961 Bob Noyce (who later founded Intel Corporation) and Jack Kilby invent the first integrated circuit, which miniaturizes electronic circuitry into a single silicon chip. 1964 I...
