(Nobel Prize 2009 awarded to Communication pioneers)
A pioneer in fibre optics and two scientists who figured out how to turn light into electronic signals – work that paved the way for the Internet age – were awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for physics on Tuesday.
Charles Kao, a Shanghai-born British-American, won half the 10 million Swedish crown ($1.4 million) prize for a discovery that led to a breakthrough in fibre optics, determining how to transmit light over long distances via optical glass fibres.
Willard Boyle, a Canadian-American, and George Smith of the United States shared the other half for inventing the first successful imaging technology using a digital sensor.
“This year’s Nobel prize in physics is awarded for two scientific achievements that have helped to shape the foundaCharles Kaotions of today’s networked societies,” the award-winning committee said in a statement.
Their achievements have allowed vast amounts of information to be sent around the globe almost instantaneously, as trilGeorge Smith.-Reuters
lions of signals make their way through tiny glass fibres now long enough to encircle the planet more than 25,000 times.
Boyle, raised over the phone to address a news conference at the Nobel committee in the Swedish capital, sounded dazed.
“I have not had my morning cup of coffee yet, so I am feeling a little bit not quite with it all. But I have this lovely feeling all over my body, like ‘Wow, this is really quite exciting, but is it real?’” he said.
The Nobel prizes are given annually for achievements in chemistry, physics, medicine, peace, literature and economics. They were first awarded in 1901 in accordance with the 1895 will of Swedish millionaire Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite.
Robert Kirby-Harris, head of Britain’s Institute of Physics, said nothing better symbolised the information age than the Internet and digital cameras. Dawn
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