Scientific American: In the fall of 1978, Steven Chu joined Bell Laboratories for what was supposed to be an enlightenment tour, a broadening of his horizons, before heading back to a professorship at the University of California, Berkeley.

Chu found the atmosphere "electric," and he never returned to the university.

"We felt like the 'Chosen Ones,' with no obligation to do anything except the research we loved best," he wrote in his Nobel Prize autobiography. "The joy and excitement of doing science permeated the halls. The cramped labs and office cubicles forced us to interact with each other and follow each others' progress. The animated discussions were common during and after seminars and at lunch and continued on the tennis courts and at parties."

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