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by ben_w 2982 days ago
You’re taking a bunch of things deliberately invented to solve an existing problem as an example of fundamental research paying off quickly?

Counterexamples: one of the early prime number researchers was proud that his work had no use at all, and now it’s the foundation of a major class of encryption. That was a century or two.

Or, Maxwell published “A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism” in 1873, and it took another 30 years to become voice radio.

Of course, as the LHC only discovered the Higgs in 2012, even your 10 year lowball would be four years in the future.