Stockholm – Quantum Mechanics took centre stage in this year’s Nobel Prize as Scientists Alain Aspect, John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger won the 2022 Nobel in Physics for experiments in the field that laid the groundwork for rapidly-developing new applications in computing and cryptography.
"Their results have cleared the way for new technology based upon quantum information," the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said of the laureates -- Aspect, who is French, Clauser, an American and Zeilinger, an Austrian.
The scientists all conducted experiments into quantum entanglement, where two particles are linked regardless of the space between them, a field that unsettled Albert Einstein himself, who once referred to it in a letter as "spooky action at a distance".
"I'm very happy ... I first started this work back in 1969 and I'm happy to still be alive to be able get the prize," Clauser, 79, told Reuters by phone from his home in Walnut Creek, California.
Asked to explain his work in layman's terms, he joked he does not understand it himself but added that the interactions it describes permeate almost everything.
French President Emmanuel Macron tweeted his congratulations to the winners, adding "Einstein himself did not believe in quantum entanglement! Today, the promises of quantum computing are based on this phenomenon."
Quantum physics is the study of matter and energy at a subatomic level involving the smallest building blocks of nature.
Sean M. Carroll, Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University, told Reuters the prize for the trio was long overdue.
The more than century-old prize, worth 10 million Swedish crowns ($902,315), is awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Physics is the second Nobel to be awarded this week after Swedish geneticist Svante Paabo won the prize for Physiology or Medicine on Monday.
The physics prize has often taken centre stage among the awards, featuring household names of science such as Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Pierre Curie and Marie Curie, and rewarding breakthroughs that have reshaped how we see the world.
-Reuters