Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday for giving us the first split-second glimpse into the superfast world of spinning electrons.
This is a field that could one day lead to better electronics or disease diagnoses.
The award went to French-Swedish physicist Anne L’Huillier, French scientist Pierre Agostini and Hungarian-born Ferenc Krausz for their work with the tiny part of each atom that races around the centre and that is fundamental to virtually everything: chemistry, physics, our bodies and our gadgets.
Electrons move so fast that they have been out of reach of human efforts to isolate them, but by looking at the tiniest fraction of a second possible, scientists now have a “blurry” glimpse of them, and that opens up whole new sciences, experts said.
“The electrons are very fast, and the electrons are really the workforce everywhere,” Nobel Committee member Mats Larsson said. “Once you can control and understand electrons, you have taken a very big step forward.”
L’Huillier, of Lund University in Sweden, is the fifth woman to receive a Nobel in physics.
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“For all the women, I say if you are interested, if you have a little bit of passion for this type of challenge, so just go for it,” L’Huillier told The Associated Press.
The scientists, who worked separately, used ever-quicker laser pulses to catch the atomic action that happened at such dizzying speeds — one quintillionth of a second, known as an attosecond — much like the way photographers use fast shutters to capture a hummingbird feeding.
Meanwhile, two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic — technology that’s also being studied to fight cancer and other diseases.
Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.
The panel said the pair’s “groundbreaking findings … fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”
AFP