IBM taking two paths toward making solar power cheaper than fossil fuels | Ars Technica

cool stuff.

Commercial blue-sky research lives on at IBM’s Watson center | Ars Technica

Despite that history, the current obsession with short-term profitability has driven most companies to either limit their R&D or not bother creating something like Watson as their profits grow. With the steady growth of federal spending on science and the ability to move intellectual property from universities to industry, the disappearance of this sort of long-term research from the corporate side hasn’t had a large impact on US-based companies. But, with government spending shrinking, it may eventually catch up.

I sure hope so.