Tom Roberts

History of Semiconductor Engineering

performing ?rms were curtailed following the stock market decline and the subsequent economic slowdown of 2001 and 2002. The Federal Government was once the main source of the nation’s R&D funds, funding as much as 66. 7 percent of all U. S. R&D in 1964. The Federal share ?rst fell below 50 percent in 1979, and after 1987 it fell steadily, dr- ping from 46. 3 percent in that year to 25. 1 percent in 2000 (the lowest it has ever been since 1953). Adjusting for in?ation, Federal support decreased 18 percent from 1987 to 2000, although in nominal terms, Federal support grew from $58. 5 billion to $66. 4 billion during that period. Growth in industrial funding generally outpaced growth in Federal support, leading to the decline in Federal support as a proportion of the total. Fig. 2. Doctorates awarded in Engineering, Physics, and Mathematics: 1995–2002 [Source: National Science Foundation NSF 04–303 (October 2003)] Figure 1 explains the most signi?cant change in the industry which occurred in the early sixties. The industry, with pressure from Wall Street, could not ?nance long-range and risky basic research. The objective of basic research is to gain more comprehensive knowledge or understanding of the subject under study without speci?c applications in mind. Basic research advances scienti?c knowledge but does not have speci?c immediate commercial objectives. Basic research can fail and often will not bring results in a short period of time.

Lost Scrolls of Archimedes

In Tom Roberts' award-winning debut historical novel, Lost Scrolls of Archimedes, you will encounter improbable-though not impossible-history. Along the way, there will be danger, adventure, pain, and love. And a few philosophical discussions of the dangers of new technology. Marcus, a young Roman scholar, and Hippolytus, his mentor, steal two long-lost scrolls of Archimedes from the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus. Legends say the encrypted documents contain the knowledge of immense powers. When Hippolytus flees Alexandria to avoid Roman agents seeking him, Marcus is left to safeguard the scrolls. He waits, but after four years, he decides to try to crack the complex coding obscuring Archimedes masterwork. Marcus seeks help from his best friend, Kleon, and from the alluring Electra, cousin of Cleopatra and an expert linguist. The ambitious Kleon, seeking wealth and status, betrays Marcus to the agents of Roman strongman, Octavian. On a trading voyage for his father, Marcus is attacked and thrown into captivity as a galley slave. Marcus and Kleon thus begin a dangerous game of cat and mouse as each rush to extract the knowledge of the scrolls. Assassination, kidnapping, a midnight raid, and a long chase across the Tunisian desert bring Marcus to the climactic encounter with enemies-and friends-on the day of the epoch-making Battle of Actium, the funeral pyre of the Republic and the crucible of the Roman Empire.

Tom Roberts