1956 Noble Prize Winners in Physics

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that William Bradford Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain were given the 1956 Nobel prize winners in physics for their research on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect, which started the development of presnet-day communications. The author points out that William Shockley's speech at the giving of the Nobel Prize stressed that some important segments of United States industry, such as Bell Laboratories from where two of the three Nobel Laureates came, believed in the theory that research of a fundamental character is important from a practical aspect. The paper describes the process of research that led to these discoveries.

From the Paper:

"In his own life, he had been asked many times whether the experiment that he had planned was pure or applied research. At the same time, for the research scientist it was probably more important to know whether the particular piece of research will provide some more useful and lasting knowledge about nature. According to his opinion, if any such knowledge was possible, then the particular research should be classified as fundamental research and it did not matter whether the reasons for undertaking the research was purely personal motivation or with any other view."

More papers on 1956 Noble Prize Winners in Physics :

• Term Paper # 107680 : "1962 Nobel Prize in Physics"
• Essay # 25679 : "Winners" in Business"
• Analytical Essay # 136560 : "Aristotle's Four Causes in Physics"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: