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“The telescope that Galileo built in the late 1500s had the magnifying power of a pair of inexpensive binoculars available in any Wal-Mart, but it was enough to open up a new world.” I read this opening line of the Newsweek article “What We’ll Find Inside the Atom” by Leon Lederman on my transatlantic flight back to San Francisco, and I was sucked in.

Amazingly enough, Galileo’s telescope lead us on a direct path to today’s super-modern Large Hadron Collider that was fired up last week when I was in London. (Funny aside, my British colleagues and prospects were not in favor of this experiment—they, and a number of other Europeans, thought that this would have unintended consequences—like open up a Black Hole that would swallow all of Europe!)

The article goes on to state that throughout history, scientists have had to continually invent new tools and theories (for instance, to explain the behavior of atoms, scientists had to invent quantum theory, which led to semi-conductors and other technologies that account for a huge portion of the 20th century’s economic output).

How does this relate to the folks here in Silicon Valley? Because like scientists, new tools and theories are invented or evolve to break through to the next level of efficiency. We continually look for ways to invent, innovate, re-configure old tools or even more commonly, invent new tools to propel businesses forward (think telescope to atoms to quantum theory to semi-conductors).

Look at Apple and how they've transformed digital entertainment. Consumers can now carry their entire music library, plus TV shows and movies all on one device that fits easily in your pocket. Can you imagine floating this concept around twenty years ago?

VMware [NYSE: VMW] is another great example. The company broke new ground by allowing one server to run several operating systems at once, or allowing a particular operating system to run on any server. The server, essentially, becomes virtual—its function is no longer locked into the physical machine.

Or how about social networking? I believe that social networking will replace the need for CRM. Why? Between FaceBook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn and whatever else is on the horizon, all of the information that you need to know about your customers will be available in tidy, relevant places.

And to think, Galileo made it all possible with the invention of the telescope.