Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Feature
  • Published:

Bringing back the golden days of Bell Labs

Nature Reviews Physics volume 4, pages 76–78 (2022)Cite this article

Subjects

An Author Correction to this article was published on 14 February 2022

This article has been updated

Established almost 100 years ago, Bell Labs made a great contribution to advancing both fundamental science and technology. Was that the result of a unique set of circumstances or is there a reproducible recipe for success?

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: A view from the Bells Labs.

Change history

References

  1. Riordan, M. The end of AT&T. IEEE Spectrum (1 July 2005); https://spectrum.ieee.org/the-end-of-att.

  2. Gertner, J. The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation 87 (Penguin, 2012).

  3. Brumfiel, G. Bell Labs bottoms out. Nature 454, 927 (2008).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Pierce, J. R. Mervin Joe Kelly: A Biographical Memoir (National Academy of sciences, 1975); http://www.nasonline.org/publications/biographical-memoirs/memoir-pdfs/kelly-mervin.pdf.

  5. Kelly, M. J. The Bell Telephone Laboratories. Nature 166, 47–49 (1950).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  6. The Role of International Talent in Quantum Information Science (U.S. National Science and Technology Council, 2021); https://www.quantum.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/2021_NSTC_ESIX_INTL_TALENT_QIS.pdf.

  7. Witze, A. The $11-billion Webb telescope aims to probe the early Universe. Nature 600, 208–212 (2021).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  8. Castelvecchi, D. & Gibney, E. CERN makes bold push to build €21-billion supercollider. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01866-9 (2020).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Marblestone, A. et al. Unblock research bottlenecks with non-profit start-ups. Nature 601, 188–190 (2022).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Nature Reviews Physics https://www.nature.com/natrevphys/

    Iulia Georgescu

Authors
  1. Iulia Georgescu
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Iulia Georgescu.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Georgescu, I. Bringing back the golden days of Bell Labs. Nat Rev Phys 4, 76–78 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00426-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s42254-022-00426-6

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing