When Microsoft needs a tech 'miracle,' this is the team that answers the call

In 1991, Microsoft founded Microsoft Research, a division for the company's army of PhDs and scientists to pursue the coolest, wildest, most science-fictional ideas they possibly could, with the very non-corporate goal of expanding human knowledge. They came up with some incredible stuff. Over the years, Microsoft Research contributed to a whole mess of inventions including Google Maps-style global mapping, voice recognition software, and the smartwatch. The problem was, very few of those cool academic discoveries were actually making their way back to Microsoft's actual commercial products. Microsoft may have invented the tablet, but the Apple iPad ran away with the market.