history of science and business

Bell Labs, one of the world’s premiere research institutions, was promoting the development of the PicturePhone by 1969. The first article documenting that the sight of lips annunciating sounds affects hearing (the McGurk Effect) was published in Nature, a leading scientific journal, in 1976. The authors of the article, Harry McGurk and John McDonald, were affiliated with the Department of Psychology, University of Surrey, UK. Did researchers at Bell Labs know about the McGurk Effect by 1969?

At least this is clear: good science, whether known or yet to be discovered, is not sufficient to produce a profitable new product.

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