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The unpaid debt

Fundamental research can yield unforeseen benefits of great value for society, but often this happens only many years after the initial breakthroughs have been made. Can society find a way to pay back this debt?

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Figure 1: What if? Without the breakthroughs in fundamental physics by Maxwell, Lorentz, Einstein and others, is this how a home music player would look today?

References

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Cooper, L. The unpaid debt. Nature Phys 3, 824–825 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys793

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys793

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