European duo awarded Nobel Prize for HDD-related discovery

Although you've probably never glanced at your HDD-based music player and whispered a silent "thank you" to France's Albert Fert and Germany's Peter Grünberg, they're being rewarded handsomely for their discovery of a phenomenon used in every single one. In the effect, which is dubbed giant magnetoresistance, "very weak changes in magnetism generate larger changes in electrical resistance," which in turn allows data stored on hard drives to be "converted to electrical signals." The duo has been largely credited with enabling the portable HDD player market to explode, and they will reportedly split the respectable $1.5 million purse that comes with winning the Nobel Prize in physics.

[Image courtesy of Nobel Prize]

[KR @ Oct 9th 2007 2:55PM]

Thanks guys!

[Flinkman @ Oct 9th 2007 2:57PM]

Good for them and a big thanks from us.

[ty @ Oct 9th 2007 3:02PM]

Cheers!

[bharatk12 @ Oct 9th 2007 3:10PM]

thanks guys......now please move over for flash based drives

[Jean-Michel Decombe @ Oct 9th 2007 3:11PM]

Dear Albert,

Thanks for all you did. As for the iPhone you wanted for Christmas... GET LOST!

Insanely Yours,

-Steve

[[e-mail] @ Oct 9th 2007 3:14PM]

It is sad that major sports figures earn 20 times the amount that these two guys are getting every year. This is the biggest prize in science and while splitting 1.5mil isn't bad, its nothing compared to people who do nothing for this world. Imagine if these guys had patented their technology, they would be billionaires! People need to get their priorities straight.

[NHAnimator @ Oct 9th 2007 4:01PM]

While I would agree that sports players are overpaid, I wouldn't lump them in with "people who do nothing for this world." Sports teams can aid a community wracked by disaster (see: 9/11 in New York and the hurricane in New Orleans) by bringing together fans of all walks of life and giving them something to feel good about (don't see: 2007 Saints/Yankees/Mets). Many players give more of their time and money to charity than you and I will ever will (see: United Way, Habitat for Humanity, The Jimmy Fund).

[AzrealJG @ Oct 9th 2007 4:02PM]

Peter Grunberg DID patent the technology. It's used in the read heads of most modern Harddrives (it's one of the technological advances that lead to greatly increasing the data density in HardDrives).

[Chris @ Oct 9th 2007 4:49PM]

Fortunately for us all, you have very little say in who gets what amount of money. The fact is, if an inventor cannot monetize his invention, that is his own fault.

PLENTY of money has been made selling devices with this technology. It is THAT which you should be comparing to baseball player's salaries before judging.

[Spenecer @ Oct 9th 2007 3:16PM]

Why do these guys not get royalties for every hard drive built?

[Doug @ Oct 9th 2007 3:23PM]

i thought the prize amount was 10,000,000??

[Doug @ Oct 9th 2007 3:27PM]

nevermind - i didnt convert it.

10 million Swedish kronor = 1.54109 million U.S. dollars

[ryantrevisol @ Oct 9th 2007 3:43PM]

There's a monetary prize??? Oh man! If I'da known that, I woulda started my career in physics years ago. Jeez! What was I thinkin'?

[Jason @ Oct 9th 2007 3:33PM]

According to the article they made the discovery in 1988, and the first commercial drive to use it was built in 1997 and that quickly thereafter it became "standard technology". So does that mean that the hard drive in my current PC (or my iPod for that matter) is fundamentally different than the one that was in my PC back in 1995? Or is this specific to the micro drives used in cameras and PMPs?

[VOx-Pop @ Oct 9th 2007 5:22PM]

Hard drives based on this principal (and developments that have followed on directly from it) have been in GENERAL use since then. The heads that read back data from the magnetic discs in every hard drive now use variants on the Giant Magnetoresistance principal discovered by Fert and Grunberg.

I started work on GMR research the same year they discovered it, and watched it grow from a new discovery in quantum magnetics to a multi-billion dollar industry in just a few years.

[Sirocco @ Oct 9th 2007 4:36PM]

NHAnimator, I certainly would lump (most) overpaid athletes in with "people who do nothing for this world." Amateur teams (i.e. paid nothing) would have the same effect of "making everyone feel good" as those who are overpaid. If you reduced the salaries of overpaid athletes to a tenth of what they're currently paid, fans would be just as happy, and the athletes would still be overpaid.

[Josh L @ Oct 9th 2007 4:59PM]

Who cares how much they make?

[Sirocco @ Oct 10th 2007 1:24PM]

Who cares about THEM!

[tekdroid @ Oct 13th 2007 10:39AM]

good athletes deserve every cent they get.

The risks and uncertainties involved and the constant training to be the best deserve rewards, just like anything else.

Corporations want to associate their (mostly crap) products with them for this reason. Not many of us would sacrifice what they do to get to the level they get.

[Hasnat @ Oct 9th 2007 4:54PM]

about *ucking time

[danday @ Oct 9th 2007 4:57PM]

Thank you and thanks to engadget for giving us more information about people who really make our lives better

[Seung-Hwan @ Oct 9th 2007 5:20PM]

Well while the money is nice, I'm sure the discovery within itself provided them with much more satisfaction, as was the recognition from peers.

[[e-mail] @ Oct 9th 2007 7:07PM]

Oh I don't deny that. They are not looking for huge amounts of money in the first place, but the thought of the amount sports figures are being payed disgusts me.

[Robert Clegg @ Oct 9th 2007 5:52PM]

Anyone noticed that if you merged these guys pictures you would get Albert Einstein.... probably just me being drunk..

[Wwhat @ Oct 9th 2007 11:07PM]

Clearly the photographer was influenced by classical pictures of scientist, like the ones of Einstein, they aren't B&W and lit that way by coincidence.

[Tjones @ Oct 10th 2007 10:42AM]

Yes, that was the first thing I thought when I saw the images.

But then again, I am also drunk.

[korey @ Oct 9th 2007 8:09PM]

well its the dumbing down of society, what do you expect. Our short attention span doesn't help either. Mediocrity seems to be the norm but as long as I have my video games and reality TV then I'm ok!

[PenaltyKillah @ Oct 9th 2007 11:40PM]

Wow... thanks, Nobel Memorial Foundation, for giving those guys the recognition they deserved half a decade ago! And such right timing, giving those Nobels just when flash players are overtaking!

[PeteC @ Oct 10th 2007 2:14AM]

What load of rubbish is this? Everyone knows Steve Jobs invented the mp3 player right? :-P

[mmm @ Oct 10th 2007 6:28AM]

Prize money isn't everything.
It's probably a wee bit easier getting grants if you're a Nobel laureate.