. Bell telephone magazine . s? • What makes a material magnetic? • What are the best insulators? These are all old questions at BellLaboratories, and each has led to manyothers, including a fairly basic one: arerelays really the best way to switch elec-trical signals? The questions lead to exciting researchthat sometimes provides answers rela-tively easily, but often leads to no finalanswers. The continuing search for im-provements through understanding basicprocesses frequently develops the kind ofknowledge that contributes to manyfields of technology relevant to communi-cations. Some contrib
. Bell telephone magazine . s? • What makes a material magnetic? • What are the best insulators? These are all old questions at BellLaboratories, and each has led to manyothers, including a fairly basic one: arerelays really the best way to switch elec-trical signals? The questions lead to exciting researchthat sometimes provides answers rela-tively easily, but often leads to no finalanswers. The continuing search for im-provements through understanding basicprocesses frequently develops the kind ofknowledge that contributes to manyfields of technology relevant to communi-cations. Some contributions seem far re-moved from the problem that startedthe work in the first place. H Communications is such a perva-sive and broad technology thatthere is almost no recognized field ofphysical science where a significant ad-vance is not directly applicable to some Below: laser studies. This field looks so promising that today many scientists and engineersat Bell Laboratories are spending all or most of their time in part of the communications art. Eventhe social and biological sciences oftenyield important contributions. The variety and scope of communica-tions technology explains why there areso many engineers and scientists from somany specialties at Bell Telephone Lab-oratories. And it explains why BellLaboratories supports selected researchprojects in several colleges and universi-ties. New ideas in a field of science cansuddenly change the economic relevanceof broad areas of technology and generatemany development projects of potentialutility to the Bell System. One of the better examples of how suchoutside research can evolve into a majoreffort is the current work on masers andlasers at Bell Laboratories. Dr. CharlesTownes, one of the important pioneers inmicrowave spectroscopy, began his workat Bell Laboratories. While at BTL, hedid extensive work in this then-emergingfield. His later work at Columbia Uni-versity eventually led to his conceptionof the maser, a d
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