In 1967, they introduced the world to floppy disks. In 1969, they helped land the first two humans on the moon. In 1970, they came out with the hard disk. There were a host of other inventions to IBM Research Labs’ credit — the ATM, the portable computer, the magnetic strip card, the technology behind laser eye surgery and the smartphone. The world’s first corporate laboratory, set up by Thomas J Watson Sr in 1945, has an undeniably illustrious history.