William Shockley

thumb|I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. William Bradford Shockley Jr. (February 13, 1910 – August 12, 1989) was an American inventor, physicist, and eugenicist. He was the manager of a research group at Bell Labs that included John Bardeen and Walter Brattain. The three scientists were jointly awarded the 1956 Nobel Prize in Physics for "their researches on semiconductors and their discovery of the transistor effect". Quotes My research leads me inescapably to the opinion that the major cause of the American Negro's intellectual and social deficits is hereditary and racial genetic in origin and thus not remediable to a major degree by practical improvements in environment. Interview with Black journal. I am overwhelmed by an irresistible temptation to do my climb by moonlight and unroped. This is contrary to all my rock climbing teaching & does not mean poor training, but only a strong-headedness. Memo to himself in 1947, regarding work on the transistor, as quoted in Broken Genius : The Rise and Fall of William Shockley, Creator of the Electronic Age (2006) by Joel N. Shurkin, Ch. 7, p. 125. Nature has color-coded groups of individuals so that statistically reliable predictions of their adaptability to intellectual rewarding and effective lives can easily be made and profitably used by the pragmatic man-in-the street. As quoted in "Shockley's Race View called 'Senile, Fascist'" in St. Petersburg Times (8 September 1971) I had one experience which gave me some slant on the way large organizations run. I was not allowed to take spherical trigonometry because I'd sprained my ankle. Because I'd sprained my ankle I had an incomplete in gym, phys ed. And the rule was that if you had an incomplete in anything, you were not allowed to take an overload. I argued with some clerical person in the administration office, and was stopped there. It's an experience which I've remembered since, and advised people not to be stopped at the first point. Interview in 1974, quoted at "William Shockley" profile at PBS If you take a bale of hay and tie it to the tail of a mule and then strike a match and set the bale of hay on fire, and if you then compare the energy expended shortly thereafter by the mule with the energy expended by yourself in the striking of the match, you will understand the concept of amplification. As quoted in The Chip War : The Battle for the World of Tomorrow (1989) by Fred Warshofsky, p. 21. See also Marian Van Court Karl Pearson External links Category:1910 births Category:1989 deaths Category:People from London Category:People from California Category:Physicists from the United States Category:Atheists Category:Electrical engineers Category:Eugenicists Category:Inventors Category:Nobel laureates in Physics Category:Nobel laureates from the United States Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology alumni Category:California Institute of Technology alumni Category:Stanford University faculty Category:Columbia University faculty