British physicist and materials scientist Cyril Hilsum, widely recognized as "the father of liquid crystals" for enabling flat-panel display tech, died at 101
THE SO WHAT
The passing of Cyril Hilsum is a reminder that today’s “invisible” infrastructure—like LCDs once were—often comes from decades-long bets in materials science. For operators, it’s a quiet nudge to keep a small but persistent allocation for deep tech that won’t pay off on a 3-year roadmap but can underwrite entire product categories later.
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