In 1909 an English newspaper offered ￡1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an airplane.Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colorful. One is Louis Bleriot. He owed a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had crashed several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, "He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in a crash!" But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideasabout airplane design.The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. "Oh, well," he said, "If I'm going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now." Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometers from the French coast, his plane had engine trouble. It crashed into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days laterHe flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer's field. When he did so, a customs officer rushed up to his plane. Planes havechanged since then but customs officers have not. "Have you anything to declare?" the officer demanded.Why did Hubert Latham want to fly across the Channel?

In 1909 an English newspaper offered ￡1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an airplane.Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colorful. One is Louis Bleriot. He owed a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had crashed several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, "He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in a crash!" But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideasabout airplane design.The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. "Oh, well," he said, "If I'm going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now." Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometers from the French coast, his plane had engine trouble. It crashed into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days laterHe flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer's field. When he did so, a customs officer rushed up to his plane. Planes havechanged since then but customs officers have not. "Have you anything to declare?" the officer demanded.Why did the customs officer rush to the plane?

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第1题】 Holonvak's colleagues thought he would fail in his research on LEDs at the time when he started it.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第2题】Holonyak believed that his students that were working with him on the project would get the Lemelson MIT Prize sooner or later.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第3题】Holonyak was the inventor of the transistor in the early 1950s.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第4题】LEDs used in traffic lights are developed by Holonyak's students.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第5题】When Holonyak invented LEDs, he believed that they would have a wide range of uses.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第6题】Holonyak said that you should not do anything you are not interested in.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第7题】LEDs are more environmentally friendly than incandescent bulbs.

The Inventor of LEDWhen Nick Holonyak set out to create a new kind of visible lighting using semiconductor（半导体）alloys（合金），his colleagues thought he was unrealistic. Today，his discovery of light-emitting diodes，or LEDs，is used in everything from DVDs to alarm clocks to airports. Dozens of his students have continued his work，developing lighting used in traffic lights and other everyday technology.On April 23，2004，Holonyak received the $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize at a ceremony in Washington. This marks the 10th vear that the Lemelson-MIT Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology（MIT）has given the award to prominent inventors."Anytime you get an award，big or little，it's always a surprise，"Holonyak said.Holonyak，75，was a student of John Bardeen，an inventor of the transistor（晶体管），in the early 1950s.After graduate school，Holonyak worked at Bell Labs. He later went to General Electric，where he invented a switch now widely used in house dimmer switches. Later，Holonyak started looking into how semiconductors could be used to generate light. But while his colleagues were looking into how to generate invisible light，he wanted to generate visible light. The LEDs he invented in 1962 now last about 10 times longer than incandescent bulbs，and are more environmentally friendly and cost effective.Holonyak，now a professor of electrical and computer engineering and physics at the University of Illinois，said he suspected that LEDs would become as commonplace（平凡的）as they are today，but didn't realize how many uses they would have."You don't know in the beginning. You think you're doing something important，you think it’s worth doing，but you really can't tell what the big payoff（成果）is going to be，and when，and how. You just don't know. “he said.The Lemelson-MIT Program also recognized Edith Flanigen，75，with the $100,000 Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award for the work on a new generation of "molecular（分子）sieves（滤网）"that can separate molecules by size.【第8题】Holonyak was surprised to receive the Lemelson-MIT Prize