Nobels 09: Physics goes to ‘the masters of light’ - October 06, 2009
This year’s physics prize has been awarded to Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith.
Kao takes half the prize for “groundbreaking achievements concerning the transmission of light in fibres for optical communication”. Boyle and Smith share the other half for inventing the CCD sensor.
“This year’s Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded for two scientific achievements that have helped to shape the foundations of today’s networked societies,” says the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which awards the prizes. “They have created many practical innovations for everyday life and provided new tools for scientific exploration.”
Kao, who works at Standard Telecommunication Laboratories, Harlow, UK, and at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, discovered how light can be transmitted over optical glass fibres, paving the way for today’s information to flow through fibre optic cables.
Boyle and Smith, both of Bell Laboratories, in New Jersey, USA, invented the Charge-Coupled Device, a digital sensor found in just about every digital camera you might care to examine.
Collectively, the Nobel press release has dubbed them ‘the masters of light’.
The scores so far:
By country of residence
USA – 5
China – 1/2
UK – 1/2By country of birth
USA – 2
UK – 1
Australia – 1
China – 1
Canada - 1By journal paper
Cell – 2
Nature – 1
Proceedings of the Institution of Electrical Engineers-London – 1
Bell System Technical Journal – 1
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Comments
it can possible all the practical solutions
Posted by: Subramaniyan Saravanan | October 6, 2009 05:51 PM
If we are look at Alfred Nobels Will
"to those who conferred the greatest benefit on mankind" this prize is to the point. I use optical glass fibers to post this comment and CCDs are all-over include orbiting the earth and on the planet Mars.
However the defining problem of of our times (the Anthropocene) is climate change. If we find our selfs on practically different planet as James Hansen put it will be big problem to all mankind and to future generations.
So I suggest Climate Physics should be the choice for next Physics Nobel prize.
Posted by: Eyal Morag | October 6, 2009 11:03 PM
Yay! I love Alfred Nobel, even though I never met him! :)
These prizes will make a great difference to our world and the thinking that goes on in it.
I still think James Hansen should have won, though - climate change is the most important issue right now. Maybe next year?
Posted by: Emma Lord | October 7, 2009 04:30 AM