For a successful technology company, it is important to obtain the best technologies from research institutes and universities which help strengthen the success within the market. However, many scientists as so-called "pure researcher" are unaware of differences between the demands of the research laboratory and industries, which makes their academic endeavors less applicable to real world.
            
             Ten years ago, I was one of these "pure researchers" and my ignorance to the link between pure research and real application led to a significant failure in my research career. After my master's study in chemistry in 1989, I worked as a research scientist at a university in Henan which is a undeveloped area in central China. Owing to my hard work on the theoretical investigation and laboratory experiments, I published five papers in academic journals within two years. I was quite delighted to be regarded as a young expert in electrochemical analysis. At this time, a local water-treatment company came to ask for urgent help. Due to the lack of new technology, they were facing a serious situation because a competitive Japanese product was entering the Chinese market. They expected to have a new design for oxygen sensor and placed high level of trust in my theoretical knowledge from books and my expertise from laboratory experiments. With the help of two undergraduate students, I quickly completed the design with the perfect results in laboratory experiments, which made me confident of a success with this brand-new device. The company started to produce the devices and expected to get good-return from this valuable investment.
            
             After the debut of new device, many complaints came to us. Our detector could not give reliable results in real water samples from Yellow River, the second largest river in China and also the main water resource in Henan, due to the high sand-level in water. The clients rejected our products and tur...