Doing science for anything other than immediate monetary gain is so 20th century.

Aren't they the ones that first discovered sound echoes from the big bang?

"sound echoes from the big bang?"

Actually it was the residual microwave radiation.

Google Penzias & Wilson.
Physics Nobel in 1963, IIRC.

They also invented the transistor.
Perhaps you've heard of it.

Toured the Bell museum in Nova Scotia a few weeks ago. That was one smart fella.

They did invent the laser....

Gordon Gould invented the LASER.

"I would have had my patent long, long ago, and it would have run out long, long ago. I would have made, maybe, $100.000, much less that the patent has brought me now."
Gordon Gould