[Commons-Law] Physics Nobel 2007 and Patents

[Hasit seth]

"France's Albert Fert and German Peter Gruenberg independently discovered a
physical effect in 1988 that has led to sensitive tools for reading the
information stored on hard disks. That sensitivity lets the electronics
industry use smaller and smaller disks."
 That physical effect is called giant magnetoresistance. Fert and Guenberg
jointly won the 2007 Nobel Prize for Physics. This is a prize that is given
for basic scientific research in physics. Hard-disks won't be as small as
they are today with so much capacity, and no iPods (hard-disk ones) would be
there without giant magnetoresistance.

Fert plans to use some bit of money to buy new sails for windsurfing.
Gruenberg said something worth attention:

He said the prize money would let him do research "without having to apply
for grants for every tiny bit." He also said he knew early on that his
discovery had commercial potential, which is why he secured a patent. "When
you have three children, it feels good to have an extra income," he said of
the profit from his patent.
Doesn't this go against the stereotype of a "pure scientist" in basic
sciences being not concerned about the real world applications of his or her
invention? and hence having nothing to do with patents? Next time you want
to propound that basic sciences are too "pure" to have anything to do with
inventions, give it a little more thought...

Regards,
Hasit
Link:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NOBEL_PHYSICS?SITE=IXPRS&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
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