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Scientists have always been divided about whether or not to save the world. Who can blame them? When physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer witnessed the first test of an atomic bomb, his pride over creating an inconceivably powerful energy source was immediately overshadowed by a brooding awareness that scientific knowledge can bring fantastic destruction as well as glorious salvation. Quoting Vishnu from the ancient Hindu text, the Bhagavad Gita, Oppenheimer observed, "I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds."
Ever since Oppenheimer’s reveries in the deserts of New Mexico 65 years ago, scientists have been more sophisticated in their embrace of the messianic impulse. They are now more restrained in their drive to change the world. Even as the scientist as messiah emerged in the 20th century as a new social type, so too did the mirror opposite:

Look inside an e-reader, game console, Blu-ray player, TV, or smartphone and odds are you'll find a cluster of chips designed by Marvell Technology Group Ltd., a 15-year-old Silicon Valley firm. Marvell crafts the CPU as well as the wireless transmitters and receivers, the digital signal processors, the video processors, and even the power management system. Its chips will likely appear in the wave of Android tablets expected to hit the market soon. And the One Laptop per Child organization just announced that its next generation of low-cost computers—the first to finally get below US $100—will rely on Marvell electronics as well.
But Marvell and its quietly intense founder and CEO, Sehat Sutardja, aren't exactly household names. That doesn't particularly bother Sutardja. If he's looking for affirmation of his enormous success, he need only consider the company's explosive growth, its lineup of innovative, in-demand products, its more than 5000 employees, its R&D and design centers in Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Silicon Valley, South Korea, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan, and its $3 billion in annual revenues. If Sutardja doesn't capture media attention like, say, Apple's Steve Jobs, well, he's okay with that.