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NOBEL-PHYSICS
Trio win Nobel Physics Prize for laser research
STOCKHOLM, Oct 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Three researchers on Tuesday shared the
2018 Nobel Physics Prize for inventions in the field of laser physics which
have paved the way for advanced precision instruments used in corrective eye
surgery and industry, the jury said.
Arthur Ashkin of the United States won one half of the nine million Swedish
kronor (about $1.01 million or 870,000 euros) prize, while Gerard Mourou of
France and Donna Strickland of Canada shared the other half.
Ashkin, 96, was honoured for his invention of “optical tweezers” that grab
particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells with their laser beam
fingers.
With this he was able to use the radiation pressure of light to move
physical objects, “an old dream of science fiction,” the Royal Swedish
Academy of Sciences said.
Meanwhile Mourou, 74, and Strickland — only the third woman to win the
Physics Prize — won for together developing a method to generate ultra-short
optical pulses, “the shortest and most intense laser pulses ever created by
mankind,” the jury said.
Their technique is now used in corrective eye surgery.
Last year, US astrophysicists Barry Barish, Kip Thorne and Rainer Weiss won
the physics prize for the discovery of gravitational waves, predicted by
Albert Einstein a century ago as part of his theory of general relativity.
On Monday, two immunologists, James Allison of the US and Tasuku Honjo of
Japan, won this year’s Nobel Medicine Prize for research into how the body’s
natural defences can fight cancer.
The winners of the chemistry prize will be announced on Wednesday, followed
by the peace prize on Friday. The economics prize will wrap up the Nobel
season on Monday, October 8.
For the first time since 1949, the Swedish Academy has postponed the
announcement of the 2018 Nobel Literature Prize until next year, amid a
#MeToo scandal and bitter internal dispute that has prevented it from
functioning properly.
BSS/AFP/ARS/1627 hrs