CBS Sunday Morning‘s profile of Bell Labs, draws on Jon Gertner’s book, The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation (Penguin, 3/15). After the show aired, the book rose to #36 on Amazon’s sales rankings (as of this post, it’s moved down a bit to #63). Several libraries are showing heavy holds on light ordering.

Reviewing it in the NYT last week, Michiko Kakutani said,

Mr. Gertner’s portraits of … the cadre of talented scientists who worked at Bell Labs are animated by a journalistic ability to make their discoveries and inventions utterly comprehensible — indeed, thrilling — to the lay reader. And they showcase, too, his novelistic sense of character and intuitive understanding of the odd ways in which clashing or compatible personalities can combine to foster intensely creative collaborations.

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