This little-known Silicon Valley lab is behind the most exciting technologies of the last 50 years
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A little-known lab in Menlo Park, California is responsible for many of the most exciting technologies we've seen over the last half-century.
Initially founded in 1946 by Stanford University as The Stanford Research Institute, it's now separate from the university and goes by SRI International.
But it's always been a non-profit dedicated to research and development.
With 4,000 patents to its credit, SRI is fairly well-known in Silicon Valley, but most consumers have no idea it's been behind the scenes helping with everything from the computer mouse to the Siri voice assistant in your iPhone.
Although discussion and plans for a research institute at Stanford go back to 1925, SRI was not officially created until 1946.
Reuters
It got right to work on its first research study trying to figure out whether the guayule plant could be used as a rubber substitute — a big problem since rubber was in short supply during World War II.
British Army/Sgt. Christie
Source: SRI
It's done plenty of other research for corporations and the military, like figuring out how the Air Force could expand its aircraft inventory and helping Walt Disney find the perfect spot for his Disneyland theme park.
HarshLight/Flickr
See the rest of the story at Business Insider