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Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded to trio of quantum dot researchers
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winners contributed to the discovery and development of quantum dots. Moungi G. Bawendi, Louis E. Brus and Alexei I. Ekimov will share the honors.
Sony's head of AI research wants to build robots that can win a Nobel Prize
Dr. Hiroaki Kitano, CEO of Sony Computer Science Laboratories seeks to launch the Nobel Turing Challenge and develop a AI smart enough to win itself a Nobel Prize by 2050.
CRISPR gene editing pioneers win the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
CRISPR gene editing pioneers Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna have won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for a 'revolutionary' impact on science.
Scientist trumps his own work three weeks after winning the Nobel Prize
If you'd just won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry, no-one would blame you if you took a quick trip to Disneyland, or at least a few days to catch up on Orange is the New Black. Eric Betzig, however, had other plans, since shortly after he was told he was receiving the accolade for revolutionizing the world of microscopy, he was ready to do it all over again. Put (very) simply, his first achievement, PALM, was a microscope capable of observing cellular interactions in unprecedented detail. The downside to the technique, however, was that it couldn't take shots of fast-moving cells, produced images with a halo around them and the light used to take the pictures was toxic to the cells being studied.
Higgs boson researchers awarded Nobel Prize for physics
Sure, it may have been one of the easier Nobel prizes to call in recent years -- at least partly -- but that doesn't make it any less notable. This morning, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics to Peter Higgs and Francois Englert "for the theoretical discovery of a mechanism that contributes to our understanding of the origin of mass of subatomic particles," or what's come to be known as the Higgs boson. While the prize doesn't extend to the researchers at CERN who confirmed the existence of the Higgs particle last year, the Nobel committee did cite their work in the announcement, as did Peter Higgs himself, who said in a prepared statement that he "would also like to congratulate all those who have contributed to the discovery of this new particle." Professor Higgs isn't offering any more than that statement today, though -- one of his Edinburgh University colleagues tells the BBC that "he's gone on holiday without a phone."
Willard Boyle, man who revolutionized digital imaging, dies at 86
We have some sad news to share with you today: Willard Boyle, the man who created the imaging technology behind everything from digital cameras to barcode scanners, has died at the age of 86. In 2009, Boyle shared a Nobel Prize in physics for inventing the CCD, which allowed people to capture images in digital format for the first time. It all began way back in 1969, when Boyle and his future co-Laureate, George E. Smith, started laying the groundwork for the CCD while working at Bell Laboratories. Building off of Einstein's photoelectric effect, the two eventually came up with a way to locate and quantify the electrons that are knocked out of orbit every time light strikes silicon. Boyle and Smith used this technology to create their own digital camera in 1970, as well as a TV camera in 1975. Prior to his groundbreaking invention, Boyle spent two years working for NASA's Apollo program and helped develop both the ruby laser and the semiconductor injection laser. The last three decades of Boyle's life were spent in Wallace, Canada, where he grew up and, on May 7th, passed away after battling kidney disease. He's survived by his wife, three children and an indelible legacy.
Nobel Prize in Physics awarded to pioneering graphene researchers
Last year's Nobel Prize in Physics may have been somewhat belatedly awarded to the inventors of the CCD, but this year's prize couldn't be more timely -- it's just been awarded to Russian-born researchers Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov for their "groundbreaking experiments" with graphene. Graphene, as you may well be aware by now, is the thinnest and lightest material there is, and could well pave the way for whole new generation of smaller, better, faster electronics -- among a host of other things. What's more, like so many great inventions, this one also had something of an inauspicious beginning -- the researchers kick-started their research just six years ago by peeling some flakes off a chunk of graphite with a piece of Scotch tape. [Thanks, Eddie]
The internet earns a nomination for 2010 Nobel Prize
Isn't Italy a place of contrast? After the country's judiciary slammed Google for failing to keep a tight enough leash on user-uploaded content, we're now hearing that its local version of Wired magazine is putting forward the internet as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of its contributions to "helping advance dialogue, debate and consensus." Right then. Just in case you think this is all a bit silly -- and you should -- we're also hearing Nicholas Negroponte and 2003 Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi are both in support of the idea, which has been described as "a Nobel for each and every one of us" by Internet for Peace, an organization set up specifically to promote the web's candidacy. That's a pretty succinct way of putting it, but it also shows what's wrong with the idea: nothing devalues a prize's worth and meaning quite like handing it out to everyone. Just imagine icanhascheezburger.com slapping a legitimate Nobel laureate badge up on its homepage and you'll know what we mean.
Nobel Prize in Physics shared by CCD inventors, fiber optics pioneer
It's not every year that the Nobel Prize in Physics falls within our scope of coverage, but this year turned out to a big exception, as the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has deemed it fit to recognize two breakthroughs in the fiber optics and digital photography. The first of those (and half of the $1.4 million prize) goes to Charles K. Kao, whose work in the mid-60s getting light to travel long distances through glass strands made the fiber optic cables we have today possible. The second half of the prize is divided between Canadian Willard S. Boyle and American George E. Smith, who both worked at Bell Labs in Murray Hill, New Jersey, and invented the so-called charge-coupled device semiconductor, better known to anyone that has ever looked at a digital camera spec list as a CCD.[Image courtesy Nobelprize.org]
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]
The Nobel Prize for games
No, the prestigious international organization named for the inventor of dynamite isn't giving a prize for gaming along with its other prizes this week, but the Nobel Foundation is using some interesting educational games to explain the concepts behinds the winning science experiments, books and, er, concepts of peace.The games aren't going to make you reconsider buying a next generation console or anything, but they are a bit more interesting than the usual crap that passes itself off as edu-gaming. This simple platforming game used to explain laser physics is particularly notable for including actual hidden items and interesting mini-games with its dry trivia questions about lasers.This is all well and good, but when will we finally see a peace prize awarded to the person who finally brought down international criminal Carmen Sandiego?
