Applied Research

Important Examples BYT
(Before Your Time)

Magnified view of an Integrated Circuit

There have been many historical examples in which applied research has had a major impact on our daily lives. In many cases, the application was derived long before scientists had a good, basic understanding of them underlying science. (One might envision a scientist sitting at his lab bench, scratching his head and saying to himself, "I know it works; I just don't really know how it works!")
Here are just a few examples:

Prior to the 1950's, vacuum tubes were used as triodes in electrical devices such as radios. In 1948, 3 researchers at AT & T's Bell Laboratories (John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, and William Shockley) invented the transistor, a solid state triode that would revolutionize the electronics industry. Indeed, the transistor made possible the invention of the integrated circuit (the key component in microprocessors) by Jack Kilby ten years later.

Vaccinations against various diseases save countless lives each year. The first use of a vaccine occurred in the late 1790's. Edward Jenner developed a technique for vaccinating people against smallpox, a disease that once killed millions of people. In 1885, Louis Pasteur successfully innoculated a patient with a rabies vaccine. More recently, Jonas Salk developed a vaccine for polio in 1953; an oral form of the vaccine was produced by Albert Sabin in 1961.

A classic case of serendipity (chance discovery) took place in 1928. Sir Alexander Fleming was trying to find chemicals that behaved as antibiotics, substances that kill bacteria. A Penicillium mold accidentally contaminated one of his bacterial cultures. He observed that the bacteria could not grow near the mold, suggesting that the mold was producing a natural anti-bacterial agent. After years of research to isolate and purify the substance, our first true antibiotic, penicillin reached the marketplace. Fleming stated that "nature created penicillin. I only found it."

Velcro has been used routinely for only the last few years or so. It was actually invented back in 1948 by Georges de Mestral. He noticed that the seeds of the cocklebur contained tiny hooks that enabled the seeds to cling to fur and clothing. He proceeded to develop a material containing similar hooks to use as a fastener. Although his product was patented in 1957, it took many years for technology to catch up so that velcro could be mass-produced inexpensively.

John Lawrence, the brother of LBNL founder Earnest Lawrence, founded the Donner Laboratory on the UC Berkeley campus in 1936. His goal was to use radioactive isotopes to treat human diseases such as cancer and hyperthyroidism. Donner Lab is now considered to be the birthplace of nuclear medicine.

How has basic research been important in the past?