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The Thrill of Discovery

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"We started making pictures that were so photo realistic that we couldn't believe that we had done it in a way with non-impact printing, which was what the whole field was called, inkjet being only one part of it. And I guess the most exciting part of the project, once we made the pictures, we started making many pictures, and reproduction quality was beyond our imagination. I knew we had done something. We weren't sure of the impact."
Annette Jaffe
Developer of inkjet technology


"One of the advances was the ear implant which is a spin-off from the micromachining group at Stanford. This is a thin plastic needle that has a bunch of electrodes on it and you insert it in the ear in a deaf person and you can excite the nerves in the ear electrically through this little array of probes and you can actually restore hearing. They do this in some children now, you can restore hearing in totally deaf children and it's just a fantastic advance."
Kurt Petersen
Father of micromachining


"I recently heard a lecture which was recounting the history of the main disease that our laser treated, which was the condition known as diabetic retinopathy, and the statistics are that in 1966, if you contracted diabetic retinopathy, there was a 50 percent chance that you would be blind within 10 years. Today that chance has been reduced to one percent. So we're very proud of the contribution."
James Hobart
Founder, Coherent, Inc.


"Engineers are all identified with their own product. And they all have a desire to get their product out and they want it to be the best product of that type in the world. And there's a lot of other engineers looking over their shoulder or they ask questions within the group because any idea that's a good idea that they can incorporate into their product makes it a better product and they're happy to do it because the identity of it is still with them."
Robert C. Dobkin
Founder, Linear Technology/Analog Engineer


"The prostate in males at about 55 is growing and getting bigger and this prevents the flow of liquids and often needs to be operated on. It's called prostate hyperplasia. It's done through a uteroscope that is introduced and you try to remove the piece of the prostate that is blocking the channel. We use a procedure that uses a laser with a color of light that you can not see, but that cuts and cauterizes the prostate cuts. Meaning there is no bleeding. We have been able to make this procedure now an outpatient procedure with very little cauterized time and little discomfort for the patient."
Bernard Couillaud
Former CEO, Coherent


"The most complex things we used to build were buildings and cities that are intricate and have patterns all over the place. Nowadays it's no longer a city that's the most complicated thing that we, as mankind, fabricate. It's silicon chips. These chips hold an enormous amount of complexity that we can hardly ever hold in our own minds and they also invite the creation of software to drive them."
Isaac Chuang
Inventor