Caltech announces discovery in fundamental physics
When the transistor was invented in 1947 at Bell Labs, few could have foreseen the future impact of the device. This fundamental development in science and engineering was critical to the invention of handheld radios, led to modern computing, and enabled technologies such as the smartphone. This is one of the values of basic research.
In a similar fashion, a branch of fundamental physics research, the study of so-called correlated electrons, focuses on interactions between the electrons in metals.
