The importance of being an investor. In "R&D".

Jacob Christian "J.C." Jacobsen had a passion for science. Never got a Uni degree tho, despite he attended now and again some lecture.

He also had a passion for beer.

J.C. started his own brewery in Valby, just outside Copenhagen, in 1845. He called it after his son Carl (followed by the Danish word “bjerg,” meaning “hill”). So, the Carl's hill. Carlsberg.

Being a hell of perfectionist, He was always aiming at improving the quality of the product. For doing so, he needed that knowledge only people into that world could supply.

So, he founded the Carlsberg Laboratory. To surround himself with the best the academic world could offer.

Right a few years after the adventure began, a bright biologist specialized in mycology was hired: Emil Christian Hansen.

By hybridizing two different species, Hansen isolated a pure cell of yeast that, after being combined with a sugary solution, could produce a huge quantity of yeast.

He gave it the Taxon name of "Saccharomyces carlsbergensis".

A few decades later, S?ren Peter Lauritz "S.P.L." S?rensen (by the way, I can see why Danish people always use acronym for their names...) was appointed head of the Carlsberg laboratory.

 His name may not ring any bell but... he was the guy who invented the pH-scale: what measure the acidity or basicity of a solution.

So... quite a payback for investing in "R&D”, right?