My broad point was comparing an age old institution with Young one is not fair and more or less 100 years from now, who knows where things would be are.

Its not comparing apples to apples but again, if dissing MSR for not being Bell Labs - great then.

My point it is there can never be a Bell Labs again. Very few organizations have the resources to fund basic sciences and have all the talent they had under one roof.

Some argue that you can again, but I just don't see how it is possible. See, e.g., http://www.amazon.com/The-Idea-Factory-American-Innovation/d...