Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/08/25

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Subject: RE: [Leica] Re: [OT] William Shockley and Linus Pauling
From: "Austin Franklin" <darkroom@ix.netcom.com>
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 15:41:04 -0400

You may be thinking of the vacuum tube.  The purported "inventor" of it,
DeForest, under cross examination, could not explain how it worked.
Basically, it doesn't matter if you stumbled upon something by purely dumb
luck, and haven't a clue what you actually discovered...or whether you came
upon your discovery by long, hard, calculated work...you still are credited
with the discovery (not necessarily invention).

This crap about patenting genes is absolutely absurd.  It's like walking in
the forest and stumbling across an unbefore seen flower, and claiming patent
on it.  One discovers genes, not invents them.  Patents are for inventions,
not discoveries, IMO.

The transistor is another issue.  The archives "suggest" Shockley may have
actually reverse engineered the transistor.  The origin was possibly alien
(Roswell).

I like vitamin C ;-)

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Dan Cardish
> Sent: Saturday, August 25, 2001 2:55 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Re: [OT] William Shockley and Linus Pauling
>
>
> Wasn't Shockely also involved in a fierce rivalry (perhaps even
> involving a
> lawsuit) over who deserved the most credit for the transistor's invention?
>
> dan c.
>
> At 02:33 PM 25-08-01 -0400, B. D. Colen wrote:
> >Sad that by the time they died both Shockley and Pauling were pretty
> >generally viewed as loony - Shockley for his views on race, and Pauling
> >for his 'Vitamin C Cures Everything' fixation.
> >
>