A provocative article in Fortune Magazine traces the steep drop in corporate funding for basic scientific research over the last few decades. The author, Chris Matthews, recalls the great advances made by corporate laboratories like AT&T’s Bell Labs and Xerox PARC laboratory, whose scientists won Nobel Prizes and led to inventions such as the transistor and the computer mouse. While there is unlikely to be a sea-change in the way corporations fund their R&D, the article underscores the need for philanthropy to help drive new inventions on a foundation of basic scientific research. Read the Fortune Magazine article: The Death of American Research and Development.